Nearest and Dearest

Hammer and Granada joined forces to turn ITV's much-loved sitcom 'Nearest and Dearest' into a ninety-minute movie.

A few years back, I worked my way through 'Nearest and Dearest' and 'Not on Your Nellie.' It's fair to say I became a big fan of Hylda Baker and her wonderful destruction of the English language.

It's watchable. If you liked the series, I'm sure you'll enjoy this; the whole gang is here, including the hilarious Walter and Lily, along with a few new faces. Yootha Joyce is wonderful here as the lustful hotelier.

It looks rather nice; it's obvious that a bit of money was spent on it, and the location filming looks terrific.

If you like cheeky, picture-postcard humour, this will have you chuckling; if you're after more highbrow comedy, avoid it like the plague.

Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel had a few good moments here. I always thought they worked well together, in spite of their well-documented dislike of one another.

It's a watchable film.

6/10.

Hammer obviously thought that they would hit paydirt at the box office with ths television spin off. If you were a cinema goer at this time the choice would be either this type of film or a sex comedy. I would prefer the later but many would chose to stay at home leading to more cinema closures.

I never watched the TV series on which this film was based. All I can say is that if both TV and film were more or less equal how on earth did either get made let alone viewed.

The fact that so many companies were involved in it's making makes you wonder if raising finance for making the film provide to be difficult.

The other reviewers here seem to have missed the point. Nearest and Dearest ran for 7 series based almost entirely on Hilda Bakers eccentric and malapropism prone Nellie. The jokes were meant to crude northern humour and not some high brow Woody Allen type comedy. Yes it has dated badly and Jimmy Jewel was no Laurence Olivier but every time I watch this movie I chuckle frequently at the ridiculousness of the content and Hylda Bakers classic character. Maybe it's because I was born in the north west in the 70's but I find this movie an amusing diversion from every day life. Oh yes it's quite funny in parts too!

The filmed version of Nearest and Dearest was released a year before the television show finished with its final series.

The film goes back to when the show started and the death of Eli and Nellie Pledge's father. Both siblings now inherit their dad's pickle business in Colne, Lancashire.

Even though Eli has been away for a number of years, hoping to make his fortune in London. He arrived back home potless.

Eli and Nellie go to Blackpool for a seaside break. He attracts the attention of amorous widow Mrs Rowbottom (Yootha Joyce.) Then has the idea of marrying Nellie off to Vernon Smallpiece (Norman Mitchell.) A middle aged pickler from Oldham who is also single.

Only Vernon agrees to reluctantly marry Nellie as he is in desperate financial straits himself.

The film aimed for Carry On style cheeky postcard humour. It lost the pull of the television series. Both Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker struggle with the script. It is plotless and witless.

The early scene when Eli strands his girlfriend Freda (Pat Ashton) in London and they nastily throws a portion of chips at her. That is basically assault. It gets worse later, Eli does a striptease.

Then there are lazy scenes to reunite the characters from the show. On the trip to Blackpool, Eli and Nellie bump into Walter and Lily. As well as factory workers Stan and Bert.

Overall a dismal offering.

A friend of mine often cites this as the greatest film of all time: which just goes to show what too many drugs can do to your head...

It was for many years the received wisdom that the British Quota Quickies of the thirties were among the worst films ever made. The few of those fossils that still survive possess a certain period charm; however, utterly lacking in the average British feature film of the seventies, with their ugly colour, flaired trousers and dreadful haircuts. The top-grossing British feature film of 1971 was Hammer Films' big screen spin-off from the TV series 'On the Buses'; in consequence of which they promptly rushed a feature film reprise of 'Nearest and Dearest' into production, and there were two (repeat, two!!) sequels to 'On the Buses'.

For the rest of the decade the floodgates opened, with Britain's cinema screens awash with longer and generally coarser film versions of the likes of 'Up Pompeii', 'Dad's Army', 'Steptoe and Son', 'Man About the House', 'The Likely Lads', 'Are You Being Served?', 'Porridge', 'Rising Damp' and 'George and Mildred'.

The film version of 'Nearest and Dearest's bigger budget allowed for location filming in Blackpool, but the end result was still dashed off in just four weeks, complete with occasional fluffed lines by Hylda Baker. Two interesting additions to the regular cast are John Barrett as the Pledges' father Joshua who had originally died in the series' first episode in 1968 and whose final hours are here recreated; and Yootha Joyce, who naturally gives the film's best performance as a widowed Blackpool landlady desperate enough to be romantically interested in Eli.

Nobody enticed away from their TV set by the tagline 'From HAMMER who gave you 'ON THE BUSES'' was likely to have any problem with Nellie's constant excruciating malapropisms; but the endless sexual innuendo manages to sound more distasteful still when mouthed by a gallery of grotesques worthy of Breugel.