The Bed Sitting Room

19691969
MM
1h 30min

Set in post-nuclear-holocaust England, where a handful of bizarre characters struggle on with their lives in the ruins, amongst endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, mudd... Read allSet in post-nuclear-holocaust England, where a handful of bizarre characters struggle on with their lives in the ruins, amongst endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, muddy plains, and heaps of dentures and old boots. Patriotically singing "God Save Mrs. Ethel ... Read allSet in post-nuclear-holocaust England, where a handful of bizarre characters struggle on with their lives in the ruins, amongst endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, muddy plains, and heaps of dentures and old boots. Patriotically singing "God Save Mrs. Ethel Shroake, Long Live Mrs. Ethel Shroake", they wander through this surrealistic landscape, f... Read all

6.2/10

2.1K

Director
- Richard Lester
Writers
- John Antrobus(screenplay)
- Charles Wood(adaptation)
- Spike Milligan(based on the play by)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 3 nominations

Peter Cook in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Marty Feldman in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Rita Tushingham in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Michael Hordern in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Harry Secombe in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Jack Shepherd in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Arthur Lowe and Mona Washbourne in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Frank Thornton in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

Director
- Richard Lester
Writers
- John Antrobus(screenplay) (based on the play by)
- Charles Wood(adaptation)
- Spike Milligan(based on the play by)
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

Set in post-nuclear-holocaust England, where a handful of bizarre characters struggle on with their lives in the ruins, amongst endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, muddy plains, and heaps of dentures and old boots. Patriotically singing "God Save Mrs. Ethel Shroake, Long Live Mrs. Ethel Shroake", they wander through this surrealistic landscape, forever being warned by the police to "keep moving", and prone to the occasional mutation into a parrot, cupboard, or even, yes, a bed sitting room with "No Wogs" scrawled in the grime on its windows. In particular, this story revolves around the odd "love story" of a girl who lives with her parents in one compartment of a London Underground train, the commuter in the next compartment, and the doctor they meet after returning above ground in search of a nurse for the heavily pregnant girl. —Sonya Roberts <sonya_roberts@geocities.com>

absurdism post holocaust london england world war three mutants 59 more

Taglines
- WE'VE GOT A BOMB ON OUR HANDS ( *BOMB - a motion picture so brilliantly funny it goes over most people's heads.)
Genres
- Comedy
- Sci-Fi
Certificate
- M
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Trivia
Producer and director Richard Lester is said to have been depressed that many of the outdoor locations were found so quickly, and needed so little modification.

Quotes
Mate: And in come the three bears. The Daddy Bear said, "Who's been sleeping in my porridge?" - and the mummy bear said, "that's no porridge, that was my wife!"

Crazy credits
In the opening credits, cast members are listed in order of height.

Connections
Featured in Hollywood U.K.: A Very British Picture (1993)

Top review

Plot, visuals, script all equally disrupted by nuclear war- but an oddly touching black comedy!

Buried in the sheer oddity and downright perversity of the humour there is a deep pathos. People of all classes from Lord to lunatic try through activities and language to cling to a civilization represented by heaps of objects. The horrors of holocaust are tempered by humour arising mainly from the ridiculous pretensions of the cast. Every mainstay of British middle and upper class culture has been made absurd - some of the characters are busy mutating into absurd objects - a bed sitting room, a wardrobe, a parrot. The humour is zany, the one-liners often mixing double entendre, understatement and naievity with real pathos. Arthur Lowe as the pompous father, Mona Washbourne as the all-sympathetic mother can bring a lump to the throat.

The nearest rival to Milligan's and Antrobus' satire is to be found in Swift. Lampooning society after it has endured the very worst of tragedies and demonstrating through a torrent of absurdities, that human decency survives is something difficult to sustain in text, but this Fellini-like panorama could never be contained by the pages of a book. It almost defines one of the things which film can do best.

It is ragged and patchy - but a film which includes Harry Seacombe as a 'regional seat of government' defies conventional criticism!

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