Don't Just Lie There, Say Something

Brian Rix - Barry Ovis
Leslie Phillips - Sir William Mannering-Brown
Joan Sims - Lady 'Birdie' Mannering-Brown
Joanna Lumley - Giselle Parkyn
Derek Royle - Wilfred Potts
Myra Frances - Jean
Katy Manning - Damina
Barrie Gosney - Police sergeant
Peter Bland - Insp. Ruff
Anita Graham - Wendy
Derek Griffiths - Johnny
Corbet Woodall - TV newsreader

The Whitehall farces delighted London theatre-goers from the 1950s to the 1970s, but none of the impact Michael Pertwee’s play survives on screen. This film reduces the precise timing of the stage farce to double entendres, compromising positions and the dropped-trouser misunderstandings.

The philandering Minister for Home Affairs, Sir William Mannering-Brown (Leslie Phillips), and his Parliamentary Under-Secretary Barry Ovis (Brian Rix) are the principal spokesmen for a law and order Bill to combat pornography and deal with the permissive society in general. Unfortunately, a planned private assignation at his London maisonette with his personal assistant Miss Giselle Parkyn (Joanna Lumley) gets out of hand as increasing numbers of other people arrive. When Barry Ovis escapes being kidnapped by a group of hippies who oppose the legislation, his actions leads to the opposition, newspaper reporters and Scotland Yard’s vice squad descending on Sir William’s busy boudoir.