Sandwiched between the Royal Courts of Justice and Lincoln’s
Inn can be found one of the most characterful pubs in London: The Seven Stars.
An idiosyncratic ale-house for the legal profession and all who serve them
(booksellers, publishers… journalists…) it is packed full of posters and
photographs tracing the adventures of its landlady as well as the pub’s legal
connections.
In the snug to the right – it’s all pretty snug to be honest
– is a large poster promoting A Pair of
Briefs featuring an angry looking James Robertson Justice and a scantily
clad woman wearing a barrister’s wig and gown along with erm, a pair of briefs…
see what they did there? OK… so what’s the excuse for watching what promises to
be “Carry on Judging”? Well, it’s actually quite witty and, without doubt,
there is a superb cast of British acting talent.
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| Mary Peach |
Admittedly the film’s opening credits play up to the promise
of the poster, we see a young woman, Francis Pilbright (the lovely, smiley,
Mary Peach, who would later feature in the recently-recovered Doctor Who
serial, The Enemy of the World), getting
dressed for her first day in chambers. Miss Peach is indeed as shapely as her
cartoon replication but in fairness this is the most we see of her as the
narrative takes on a more dialogue-driven course (well, mostly…).
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| E-Type and Georgian house... |
She leaves a splendid Georgian house and drives an E-Type
Jaguar into London at the same time as we see a young man, Tony Stevens
(Michael Craig) leaving a more modest Victorian town house on a scooter. Both
approach Lincolns Inn and end up almost colliding… Tony is in the wrong but tries
to convince Francis that he’s a legal hot-shot… so far so rom-com.
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| Micheal Craig and Mary Peach |
He makes his way to his chambers where he finds he is about
to be displaced from the window desk by a new starter who just happens to be
the head of chamber’s niece. There’s much grumbling from the impoverished
barrister who bemoans his lack of legal challenges and those juicy,
highly-rewarding divorce cases, with his solicitor pal, George (Jameson Clark).
Then the new starter arrives and to no one’s surprise it’s the E-Type driver… before hostilities
are resumed Tony can’t help but admire the outline of her chasse (I know, I
know…just getting into the spirit of the period…) whilst George is immediately
disarmed.
Away from the Inns of Court, we see a well-dressed
middle-age woman, Gladys Worthing (Brenda De Banzie) going into a plush
Thames-side hotel and then emerging via the back entrance, considerably dressed
down and hailing a cab with confident authority. She heads south and makes her
way to a dingy maisonette where she encounters wise-cracking Sidney Pudney (Ron
Moody) who she claims is her husband. Sidney appears not to recognise her and
is shacked up with his “cleaner” Gloria (Liz Fraser) who finds his endless “as
the monkey said…” riffing most amusing.
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| Liz Fraser, Ron Moody and Brenda De Banzie |
Gladys is devastated and in her timid northern humility
seems quite different from the woman at the hotel… she’s up to something but we
don’t know what!
Back in chambers, George is despatched by Uncle Sir John
(Roland Culver) to obtain more graphic evidence in a trial involving alleged improprieties
at an entertainment venue in Soho.
George arrives to find himself plied with drink and given a close-up
view of the acts on show…
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| Bill Kerr, Jameson Clark and the great Amanda Barrie |
There’s one Gale Tornado (Carry on stalwart Joan Sims), a dancer who performs with a snake
(Amanda Barrie, Cleo herself…) and
another who dresses as a maid (Judy Carne, later to become a fixture on Laugh In… see, I told you about the
cast!). The club owner (Bill Kerr) ensures that George has a whale of a time
and he reports back to Sir John with a brown envelop full of incriminating
evidence against himself!
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| Judy Carne shakes a tail feather! |
Meanwhile, as Tony struggles on with civil engineering
cases, Francis is delivered of her first proper brief, a case involving the
denial of conjugal rights… Deciding that he can’t miss out on such a juicy
case, Tony persuades George to give him the brief for the defence without
letting him know that Francis will be his opposition: very bad form.
Francis and Tony square up for their day in court as we
learn that the case will involve Gladys against Sidney… the strands are pulled
together.
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| James Robertson Justice |
The parties appear before the fearsome Justice Haddon (the
fearsome James Robertson Justice… who was born to be a lord, m’lud) who grows
quickly frustrated with both the inexperienced barristers, the dithering Gladys
and the wise-cracking Sidney. Luckily, Gloria has been sent off to the pub and
she quickly gets sozzled in a small lounge bar not unlike that in the Seven
Stars…
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| Liz Fraser in The Seven Stars? |
Gladys’ case is that she married Sidney in the War and their
marriage licence was destroyed in a German bombing raid. For his part, as the
monkey said to the hairdresser, Sidney denies everything and you scratch your
head wondering what this is all about.
No spoilers: The
court scenes are well done and as the mysteries of the case develop so too does
the obvious rapport between Tony and Francis… who want to win each other as
much as the case. Drunken Gloria makes a timely appearance and all is, almost,
revealed…
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| Ron Moody |
Dusty verdict: I
won’t reveal the ending as a) it’s partly obvious and b) it’s mostly not… A Pair
of Briefs is ultimately a well written of slight, light comedy ideal for
that undemanding nostalgia-watch you need at weekends or on sick days!
The cast are uniformly excellent and there’s a lot of energy
from the Carry on cameos… along with the above you also get Terry Scott as a
policeman and the recently departed Graham Stark as the man bringing the case
against the nightclub.
It lives up to its poster promise and, if anything, is
slightly more sophisticated than the image of the pantily-clad Peach at first suggests. She
acts well and makes for a good match with the experienced Michael Craig:
Britain’s own Doris and Rock?
A Pair of Briefs
isn’t available on DVD and so you’ll have to wait for one
of its regular TV screenings… another VHS I’ll keep in the dusty box for a
rainy day…
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| Seven Stars on the right as Michael Craig scoots off |
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