The Wrong Box (1966)

Recipe for a riotous sixties romp? Take two aging thespians, mix in a dozen dependable character actors, add three or four comic geniuses to bind it all together and season with a generous pinch of psychedelic Victoriana. Top it off with a rising young star and the director's wife and the result is a complex confection full of surprises which the whole family can enjoy! Joining Tyler this week is writer, podcaster and occasional broadcaster Tim Worthington to talk about a film which he (rightly) argues is unfairly underappreciated: Bryan Forbes' 1966 ensemble comedy The Wrong Box. It qualifies for this podcast owing to a film-stealing turn by Peter Sellers as Doctor Pratt, but he is only one of many delights - it also features Peter Cook & Dudley Moore as a pair of hissable villains, Wilfrid Lawson as a butler on the verge of collapse, Michael Caine as the dashing, if naive, romantic lead, Tony Hancock as a rheumy-eyed troubled 'tec and Ralph Richardson as an increasingly erratic epistemophilic uncle! Also in 'blink-and-you'll-miss-'em' terms, Valentine Dyall, John Junkin, Leonard Rossiter and Graham Stark! (Graham Stark appears by kind permission of Mr Sellers). And, of course, the Lovely Nanette Newman as Miss Julia Finsbury. It's a fun, rambling conversation which, like the film itself, takes a lot of surprising turns! Tim is on Twitter @outonbluesix  Mesel': @goonshowpod