This amusing situation comedy is wholly based upon the world of England in 1953. No one under thirty, or possibly forty, will believe that such people ever existed, but every character in this farce is etched true to life, which is what gave it its 1950s appeal, as all viewers in England then would have recognised every character as a type, mostly of their acquaintance. In fact the rough countryman with the Somerset accent still survives in obscure hamlets in the West Country, looking and sounding just the same, though extinction of this species is predicted within ten or fifteen years. The other species are already long gone: the glamorous woman of 1953 (Kay Kendall), the thundering moralist of an inn-keeper with her hatchet face (Joan Young), the terrifying bullying mother-in-law (Fabia Drake), the sweet young housewife with a tear in her eye and a throb in her throat (June Thorburn), the delightfully dotty and rambling vicar on a motorbike (Reginald Beckwith), and above all the amazing Stanley Holloway, of whom tens of thousands lived in Surrey at that time. These people were still around in old folks' home in the late 1970s and could be seen and inspected, and their reality ascertained. This leaves the main character, Peter, payed by Brian Reece. He is very much a type of the Edwardian period who lingered on well into the 1950s, a whimpering unmanly eunuch known to the upper classes as 'a rig'. 'A rig' is a term used in the horse world for a stallion who sniffs round the mares but won't do it. He isn't gay, but he is useless. A typical example of an Edwardian rig is Algy Longworth in the Bulldog Drummond films. In 1953 it was evidently considered acceptable for a husband to be a rig, and his escapades were hilarious despite him being more laughable than his escapades. Believe it or not, these types all really once existed! Strange but true! Many of the lines in the script are extremely witty, though they are mostly delivered in such a low-key manner that if you haven't got your ears out on stalks, you can easily miss them. They are not delivered by the actors, they are dashed off and half-swallowed in pursuit of British Understatement, where you never then called attention to a good joke. The film is enjoyable if you can look at it from the point of view of a 1950s viewer. Anyone who does not have the patience for that and is not interested in 'how things used to be' would be annoyed. But it certainly is good harmless fun.
