Film: Sitcom To Hit Film

Sitcom To hit Film

Recently on PostFeature we looked at the lost world of the British sitcom spin-off film with a review of 1971’s Dad’s Army: The Movie. Cinematic spin-offs of popular wireless programmes first appeared in the 1930s with Band Wagon although they remained a rarity. Even after Hammer Horror adapted BBC classic The Quatermass Experiment for the cinema in 1953, there was a slow take-up. The Larkins was released on the big screen as Inn for Trouble in 1959 and Whack-O!, the BBC sitcom about a headmaster obsessed with caning his pupils was made into 1960’s Bottoms Up – the humour remaining resolutely ‘British camp’, clearly!
These film adaptations were, at this time, star vehicles for comedians and comic actors, much as the TV shows themselves had been. However, the commercial success of two mid-60s Doctor Who films told producers that audiences were willing to pay big bucks to see their small screen heroes in colour. They were also happy to pay to see more ‘adult’ scenes inserted into the normally family friendly world of primetime viewing. Cinematic versions of sitcoms generally gained much higher ratings from the board of censors than their televised versions and are all the better for it.

Expanding a sitcom into a feature film is often cheaper to produce; its familiarity to the audience cuts down on the advertising budget and the stories are based around small-room situations, even if the location of the room changes. For example, Hammer Studio’s three spin-offs from London Weekend Television’s show On The Buses repeated the same formula but in different locations and created some of the top earners at the box office in 1972.
However, the very low budgets do create a fascinatingly dismal view of England, shooting in real spaces with gloomy lighting and bleak backgrounds. Much like The Inbetweeners films, the standard plot device was to send the main characters on holiday… but unlike those Hollywood-financed films, these were to the local Pontins or camping on a desolate hillside! What could be more British?

The greatest benefit of these low-budget blockbusters is that they preserve once-popular television series’ whose actual shows have been lost. Amongst the well-regarded and still oft-spoken series such as The Likely Lads, Porridge and Bless This House are For the Love of Ada and That’s Your Funeral – shows I certainly hadn’t heard of before researching this article! Full disclosure: my mother was in primary school when most of these were released.
What is your favourite big-screen version of a series? Man About the House, Please Sir, Rising Damp? Or are you an Entourage fan who loved the new film? Tweet me and let me know. For my review of Dad’s Army (1971) type my name and the title into the YouTube search box to find my channel and many other reviews of great old films.
For more excellent classic films, and reviews of what is out at the cinema this week, tune in to LatestTV’s PostFeature, Wednesday at 6.30pm, catch up online or check @PostFeatureTV for details