‘Bless This
House’ is one of those spin-off films from a 1970s sitcom. All the successful series from this era did
it - from ‘Steptoe and Son’ to ‘Are You Being Served’ – with varying results. Some are watchable if you’re not in the mood
for anything taxing; while others are an embarrassment – British cinema’s dying
gasp. ‘Bless This House’ (1972) comes
somewhere in the middle of the scale – predictable and hackneyed in places, but
with a liberal enough sprinkling of laughs to keep you watching. It’s also a feelgood factor to see so many
familiar faces from your childhood viewing.
Sid James, Terry Scott, June Whitfield, Peter Butterworth and, well, I was going to say Robin Asquith
but the only other thing that I know him from is the Confessions films and I’m
sure I didn’t see those as a child!
When I last
watched ‘Bless This House’, I settled down with my sewing box. Films like this, easy to follow and so very
familiar, are a cosy background to another task. Two relaxing hits in one. Three in fact, as these two are invariably
accompanied by a cup of tea and some chocolate.
‘Bless’ means an hour and a half of bliss. You can allow your imagination to have a
wander too, and this time I was blessed with quite an interesting idea along
with a realisation that things aren’t always as modern as they seem.
The film opens
with Mrs Abbot (Diana Coupland) and Mrs Lewis (Patsy Rowlands) collecting what
many would call junk. It’s their
intention to open an antiques stall in a specialist market place and they are
busy building up stock by rummaging in jumble sales. One person’s junk is indeed another’s
treasure, as a charity shop fanatic myself, there’s no need to convince me of
this. Armed with my copy of the latest
Vogue magazine in order to read up on what I should be looking for, I rattle
through the rails looking for discarded sartorial treasure. I’m proud of my eclectic wardrobe, where very
few items cost me more than a tenner and many of them were made to fit well and
to last. When I tire of them, I either
give them back to charity or sell them on eBay, sometimes even getting my
original outlay back. Cheap and
environmentally friendly!
While watching
‘Bless This House’ I was replacing some shabby buttons on an otherwise decent
linen cardigan, with a set from my extensive collection (thanks to Nan and
Oxfam). It wasn’t long before I had the
idea of setting up an Etsy shop to sell on some of my old (otherwise known as
vintage) sewing kit. And following that
thought came another about some things never changing. I am by no means the only person going around
second hand sales and later selling on my finds – it’s a booming business out
there in cyber space. I had lazily
thought that this was something new that had been born out of our new way of
life, half spent in the ether. But
having watched ‘Bless This House’ I can see that I was wrong. Of course I was. Didn’t I spend my teenage (pre computer-age)
years riffling through the stalls on Sheffield flea market? Doesn’t every town have its antique/second
hand quarter which goes way back in its establishment? The only difference is that now more people
can afford to do it, as the overheads of this activity have been reduced to a
listing fee. We’re all digging out our
junk in the hope that it’s treasure – and now that we are well into the
disposable society age there is more of it in circulation.
I can’t quite
decide if ‘Bless This House’ recognises the environmental connection to this
junk recycling. Sid and Diana’s daughter
(Sally, played by Sally Geeson) spends much of the film protesting against
environmental damage. Had the connection
between recycling and the environment been made back then? Again, quite lazily, I had assumed not. In fact I wouldn’t have said that there was
much at all in the way of environmental awareness back then but it seems I was
wrong. Sally supports her mother’s
venture. Perhaps even in 1972 some did recognise the need to re-use materials. There was certainly a lot less waste back
then, as the small dustbins that I remember from my childhood attest. What a shame that it took so long for the
need to recycle to really take off…and let’s hope that we get better at it.
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