I Thank You – 1941 | 83 mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

I Thank You stars Arthur Askey (the title being his catchphrase) as a variety artist trying to raise money to put on a show. After a series of farcical episodes based on the comic staple of mistaken identity, he finds himself working for an aristocratic lady who used to be a music hall star before marrying a Lord. The climax of the film comes in one of the underground stations used as air-raid shelters. The ex-singer (played by the veteran music hall star, the great Lily Morris) is lured there by Askey, he reveals her identity to the crowd, demanding that she sing her most famous song. This she does, after some persuasion, and the whole crowd in the shelter joins in. The song is ‘Waiting at the Church’, a music hall standard from the 1890s, and so the overriding image is of the wartime shelter transformed into a Victorian music hall, with all the attendant notions of nationhood and community exerting their powerful emotional/ideological pull.