Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! - Film - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)

Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!. Image shows from L to R: Sir William 'Billy' Mannering-Brown MP (Leslie Phillips), Gisele Parkyn (Joanna Lumley), Barry Ovis MP (Brian Rix). Copyright: ITV Studios / Rank Organisation

Genre

Film

Released

1973

Stars

Brian Rix, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Joanna Lumley, Peter Bland, Derek Royle, Katy Manning, Myra Frances and more

Writer

Michael Pertwee

Director

Bob Kellett

Producer

Andrew Mitchell

Company

Comocroft

Prominent cabinet minister and anti-filth campaigner Sir William Mannering-Brown is, it seems, somewhat of a hypocrite. Despite publicly decrying the age of free love and permissiveness, he's conducting an affair with none other than Wendy, the wife of a tabloid journalist.

His Parliamentary colleague and co-author of a new Bill intended to quash the exuberances of the permissive youth, Barry Orvis, meanwhile, is about to get married to his long-standing fiancée. An ideal opportunity, then, for a group of youthful agitators to plot to kidnap both men and scupper the legislation!

Come the day of the wedding, the group pounce - but owing to a last-minute change in the men's plans, they only manage to take Orvis, drugging and holding him hostage at an orgy before tipping off the police as to his whereabouts as he begins to rouse. As the Met arrive, Orvis realises the situation he's been put in and makes his escape to William's flat, where he's been staying ahead of the wedding: hotly pursued by one of his captors.

Sir William, meanwhile, is planning an evening with Wendy until Orvis's disappearance causes her reporter husband to be on alert. Her cancellation leaves him somewhat at a loose end until he realises new secretary Miss Parkyn rather fancies him! Returning to his flat, things begin to get more than a little complicated when Orvis's fiancée arrives; a police patrol spots suspicious activity at an upstairs window; ancient opposition MP Wilfred Potts gets locked out of his own nearby apartment; Wendy discovers she is free after all; and the youths are still intent on getting some incriminating evidence to scupper the Bill!