The Best House in London

One of the earliest and certainly one of the most lavish of the British sex comedies that were to proliferate over the following decade, and typical of its time in the lampooning of Victorian double standards, a period then regarded as the ultimate in repression, prudery and hypocrisy. Today's audiences, reputedly as eager to take offence as any Victorian maiden aunt will no doubt find much of the content fairly deplorable, including a white actor 'yellowed-up' as a Chinese delegate. Though you don't have to be a censorious millennial to feel uneasy at some of the material, the jokes about rape and the flippant attitude to young girls in brothels, not to mention a particularly crass piece of innuendo in a song from a little girl, especially in the light of what we now know about the likes of Jimmy Savile and co at the time. David Hemmings stars in a dual role but struggles to convince in either. Despite all this Denis Norden's script does conjure up its share of amusing moments and it is fun spotting the numerous well-known actors and celebrities of the time popping up in cameo roles.