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Waterloo Bridge Handicap, The

ANOTHER OF those PLANK-esque short Britcom films, this one starring LEONARD ROSSITER as Charles Barker who boards the train last at Surbiton determined to be the first out at Waterloo and hence the winner, for the 15th consecutive time, of the Waterloo Bridge Handicap. Very little dialogue apart from Rossiter’s thoughts expressed as voice-overs and BROUGH SCOTT’s commentary. Apart from Rossiter’s character, all the other racers are given horsey nicknames, eg Austin Reed (JOHN QUENTIN), Lincoln’s Inn (IAN MARTER), Likely Lady (LYNDA BELLINGHAM), Red Hair (ZOOT MONEY) and Chubby Chap (GORDON KAYE).

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Jimmy

    January 13, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    Anywhere I can watch this online? Sounds ace.

  2. Adrian

    January 14, 2010 at 9:54 am

    This was being shown as late as 1983 in UK cinemas.

  3. Jason Goy

    June 16, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    This film was shown before Raiders of the Lost Ark in British Cinemas on its first release in 1981. I remember it very fondly. Later that summer Raiders was preceeded by another very good short film – Mayfanwy, a segment from a longer John Betjeman film, Late Flowering Love. Are there any Raiders fans that can remember the strange little film that came out with its 1982 summer re-release? There was this cool, white hatted black guy slinking around neon lit NY backstreets. But that’s about as much as I can remember!

  4. Gareth James

    June 16, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    When I was dragged to see Raiders (aged 5 I kid you not!) by my parents one wet afternoon in Basingstoke, there was a short film on about the Red Cross or something – certainly of a staid documentary nature – perhaps cinemas had a degree of choice. I don’t know which was more horrifying – Ronald Lacey’s face melting, or Basingstoke.

  5. John Cunningham

    January 30, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    This is now available on You Tube.

  6. Great Bustard

    January 30, 2011 at 10:18 pm

    Excellent! But who’s that playing the man with the clipboard? Where do I know him from, was it a public information film?

  7. George White

    March 14, 2024 at 8:40 am

    Later shown on ITV not BBC2.
    Produced by Paramount.
    The version on Youtube has the Thames logo before it.

  8. Richardpd

    March 14, 2024 at 10:15 pm

    Quite a late for short film to be shown at the cinema, by the mid 1980s they usually went straight to TV, often being the sort of thing to fill a gap in a bank holiday schedule.

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