Reviews

A movie about a bunch of guys driving like maniacs to shift gravel (is it just me, or is this nuts?). If it weren't for the absurd premise for this movie and the good cast, this would be simply yet another depressing British movie; as it stands, the movie stands out for strange, speeded up scenes of trucks driving through tiny country lanes and the presence of Patrick McGoohan, who made few forays into movies later because of his TV status. If you have a chance to check it out on TV, worth looking at, otherwise a depressing reminder of just what a dire state the UK movie industry was. It's also a good basis of understanding how there is no "film industry" per se in the UK any more, just individual film makers.

Wish they would re-show this sometime - this was a genuinely very good special from Peter Cook, including some excellent guest appearances. My recollection was that the best bit was the parody song "My Daddies Dying Words", in which a dying Peter Cook reeled off useless, non-sensual pearls of wisdom on his death bed. Saw Cook recently on TV in the Jerry Lee Lewis Biopic "Great Balls of Fire", and he was excellent in it (in contrast to some of his featherweight performances when he was much younger). Now that he's no longer here, kinda wish he had been more prolific - there's very little now available from his work on TV/Film. Hopefully LWT (or whoever produced this special) will release it on DVD.