Monday, February 26, 2024

Please Sir! (1971)

Feature length spin-off versions of popular sit-coms were common in the 1970s and can be a mixed bag, Please Sir! just about manages to get away with it.

Hedges (John Alderton) is the idealistic teacher of class 5C who are basically a teenager (although they all look about 25 of course) version of the Bash Street Kids. His class complain that they have never been taken away to a camp holiday like the other classes so Hedges manages to persuade the headmaster (Erik Chitty) and other senior staff to take class 5C to a rural camp, which doesn't half resemble a prison camp...

Class 5C soon get up to no good involving nearby gypsies and posh children from another school. Hedges is also pursued by a flight attendant (Jill Kerman) and his colleague (Patsy Rowlands)...

This isn't a bad film though the comedy is often a bit corny. Taking the TV cast away on holiday was one of the usual ways to extend a TV show into a movie and it works pretty well in this case.