“Interesting both for offering a rare big-screen depiction of the British electoral process in some detail, and also for its observations about the increasing political influence of television and the decline of the English aristocracy.”
We think this breezy British by-election comedy is the perfect bit of light relief the week before the general election.
Lord Wilcot (Alastair Sim) attempts to parachute his hapless nephew Robert (Ian Carmichael) into a safe Commons seat by engineering a by-election victory on his behalf so that he can help publicise his ancestral mansion, now a commercialised stately home. Unfortunately for his Machiavellian plans, Robert meets and falls for his Labour opposite number (Patricia Bredin) during a train journey to the constituency, and their growing romance undermines the public image of “a bitter struggle” that their increasingly frazzled election agents are attempting to sell to the voting public – meaning that they too have to form an alliance if only to prise their candidates apart.
We promise, it’ll take your mind off present day politics and put a smile on your face too.
