The Optimists of Nine Elms – 1973 | 110 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Charming and touching portrait of a drab existence by the slums of London’s industrial riverside as two kids form a quirky relationship with an eccentric old busker. With the help of some fine location work, director Anthony Simmons adapts his own novel to make some perceptive observations about the futility and despair involved in moving from a shabby basement south of the river to a bleak and soulless tower-block flat where the kids can’t even keep a dog. The film represents Peter Sellers‘ best work (a role originally intended for Danny Kaye) in the 70s with a moving tragic-comedic portrayal of an aging busker sustained by memories of the music-halls. Donna Mullane and John Chaffey play the two children with appropriate innocence and wide-eyed cockney freshness.

With their aggressive father (David Daker) and tired mother (Marjorie Yates) working long shifts in blue-collar jobs, Liz (Donna Mullane) and her younger brother Mark (John Chaffey) only see their parents in the morning and late evenings and have become latch-key kids wandering South London in search of adventure. The two children are grudgingly befriended by Sam (Peter Sellers), an ageing vaudevillian street entertainer who opens their eyes to the wider world and dreams they have lost to poverty, whilst they in turn offer him the blessing of companionship.

Conditions at their slum home are poor and crowded for the children, but they hope for a better life across the river on a vast new tower block estate. Sam agrees to take the children to the stark housing estate but all seem less than impressed by the concrete architecture and bleak environment. Instead, the children buy a dog, but this creates a row at home when their father points out the council forbid pets. So Liz and Mark runaway to live with Sam, but he is grieving for the loss of his own dog and has little time for their concerns. As night fall the children haven’t returned home and their father is searching the streets, he catches up with Sam intent on giving him a piece of his mind, but instead the drunken busker responds by giving a lecture on the responsibilities of bringing up children.