REVIEW: MOVIES IN THE BAY
Fabulous to see the Norman Wisdom classic film, Press for Time in the Bay this week, shown by the inspired Movies in the Bay team at Pevensey Bay Baptist Church as part of their monthly film programme that is now well established.—Bay Life, 25 September 2017
Classic British Comedy comes to Pevensey Bay: The Getting of Wisdom
Wiki tells us that Norman Shields (Norman Wisdom) is a newspaper seller in London, a job organised for him by his grandfather, the Prime Minister (also played by Wisdom). After causing chaos. he is found a new job as reporter on a newspaper in the fictional seaside town of Tinmouth (partly filmed in the real seaside town of Teignmouth). The newspaper owner, an MP, has ambitions to become a junior minister and so goes along with the Prime Minister’s ‘request’.
During his time in Tinmouth. the well-meaning Norman gets himself into all sorts of trouble whilst reporting, such as starting an argument at a council meeting which develops into an all-out fight between members. He later becomes the reporter for the entertainment section of the newspaper, covering a beauty contest which his girlfriend Liz wins. They later return to London together, leaving a more politically settled Tinmouth behind.
Not only is Norman Wisdom a classic homegrown hero in the movie canon of the country, like wine his work matures over age.
Perhaps he is not Charlie Chaplin in terms of character, context and depth but his everyman character is so well known now, appreciated and adored that he is beginning to take his place in the story of the country that goes back to the Medieval morality plays of the Middle Ages. In that sense a screening at the Baptist church seems appropriate..
With his knockabout humour and sense of right and wrong, in settings that we all know, like coastal towns, his work rings a bell in Pevensey Bay that is cheerful and makes us think about life a little at the same time, without us knowing what we are doing, as we are bathed in a warmth of mirth.
Talk to the taxi drivers here from Albania and they will tell you that he is a national hero and treasure in their country, someone who has been admired for generations.
Films from the West were banned. Norman Wisdom films were shown back to back every week as representative of the proletarian best of the English working class, according to the Communist regime that ruled Albania for forty years, something to make us laugh in itself. (A strange but true fact, maybe exported to North Korea we could avoid World War III).
In Albania they call him the everyman ‘Pitkin’. When Norma Wisdom went to Albania, he filled football grounds. He was swamped as a national hero.
In Pevensey Bay we just call him the best of British humour, because that is what his work represents.
Like the classic late forties comedy film, Passport to Pimlico (also shown by the Pevensey Bay Baptist church team), the Movies in the Bay strand put on by the church every month is one of the stand out features of cultural life in the Bay. Without stories there is no culture.
The choices made always offer something for the kids in the afternoon and then something for us not so grown ups in the evening on the last Friday of the month, projected on the wall of the church upstairs, free of charge.
The twinned choices often have a double bill element built into the programming, for example a double bill Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick. How cool is that as well?
We are reliably informed that we do not have to believe in God to see the films, that is useful because I already worship a deity, her name is Melita Cullis, one of the key organsiers of Movies in the Bay.
Pitkin in Pevensey Bay works big time.
Like the Goons, which is littered with references to Pevensey Bay (both Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers were here in the fifties), we are a community of everyman and everywoman.
Listen to the banter in the back garden of the Ocean VIew Bakery and Restaurant, often from the wit of the staff, and you have our own comedy script.
Melita Cullis said (25 September), “good morning children … this Friday, we are going on a bear hunt at Pevensey Bay Baptist Church. Please bring your teddy bears to watch the film with you and a friend that’s not been to Movies in the Bay before. You will also hear about a new project for family’s that we are about to start …it is all very exciting … I’m hoping the Love Pevensey crows will pop in to tell you all about it”
She added,”Norman Wisdom will be in the Bay this Friday …. Press for Time …this film is a U so is suitable for everyone …come an laugh along with us at this most loveable accident prone character of our English screen ..starts at 7pm ….arrive a little earlier for your hot drink and snacks to be served
Congratulations to Pevensey Bay Baptist church for putting on these themed shows, as regular as clockwork in Pevensey Bay, on the last Friday of every montb, and adding to the spirit of the community.
Simon Montgomery, editor Bay Life
Movies in the Bay
Pevensey Bay Baptist Church
Friday 29 September 2017
3:00pm: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (book by Michael Rosen)
7:00pm: Press for Time, Norman Wisdom
a 1966 British comedy film starring Norman Wisdom. The screenplay was written by Eddie Leslie and Norman Wisdom
