It's All Over Town

Lance Percival and Willie Rushton were familiar faces from the TV satire That Was the Week That Was when they made this parody of the kind of "on the town" documentary associated with producer Arnold L Miller. Affecting a Fyfe Robertson-style voiceover, Stephen Jack introduces viewers to Percival's theatre lighting technician, whose dozy efforts to train a spotlight on crooner Frankie Vaughan preface a tour of London landmarks in the company of his "fat friend" Rushton. Rather than provide a travelogue, however, the device serves to allow director Douglas Hickox to showcase an eclectic selection of musical acts that includes Acker Bilk, the Hollies, the Bachelors and the Springfields. Competing for the musical lowlight are Bilk's I've Been Sippin' Cider Beside 'Er, Percival's pun-stuffed If You like Beetroot, I'll Be True to You and Vaughan's rendition of The Big Ship Sails on the Alley-Alley-O. But the nadir is a tricksy striptease by Ingrid Anthofer from Paul Raymond's Revue Bar.