The curio’s curio, this one. A Rank musical comedy wherein we have to take it on trust that a) Donald Sinden is a songwriter by trade, b) he’s going out with Diana Dors, c) James Robertson Justice is her dad, and d) by picking up the wrong suitcase he suddenly becomes sole guardian of the titular grinning reptile, with endless japes and scrapes being the inevitable result. Once you’re past those low hurdles, however, it’s a fantastic slice of Technicolor corn, with a great early Cream cast containing Stanley ‘little bit of luck’ Holloway, Richard ‘Sykes’ Wattis, Margaret ‘one third of a chicken’ Rutherford, Patrick ‘wives’ Cargill, Gilbert ‘line’ Harding, Joan ‘washing machine’ Hickson, Frankie ‘naughteii naughteii’ Howerd, Nicholas ‘Haynes’ Parsons, Tony Selby, Ronnie Stevens and George ‘Pipkins’ Woodbridge. Incidentally, Daisy, though owned by Jimmy Edwards in the film, was in reality the property of two eccentric, elderly widows from Woking, where she lived in suburban splendour with her companion, a pipe-smoking six-footer named Bill.
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Blue Peter
Thursday, 17.30, CBBCNews this week that Blue Peter are launching a new badge to encourage participation in sport was accompanied in the press release by the more interesting news to us that this programme’s now got a new editor, one Ewan Vinnicombe. We’ll put aside our disappointment at not being headhunted to take the job ourselves and wish him all the best, although research suggests he doesn’t appear to be on Twitter, thus seemingly preventing us from being able to bend his ear and directly influence Blue Peter policy. Meanwhile, last week’s episode came in its entirety from the garden, showing off that it’s quite a versatile space and, despite the fact there’s a tram stop right next to it and a tram appeared to arrive during the programme, is actually quite quiet. The tranquillity of Salford, there.
Innocuous fun for the most part, but Justice leers unhealthily at Dors, which gives it a certain unhealthy edge at times . . .