Anthony Newley, Peter Sellers & Joan Collins - Fool Britannia

A poor stab at political humour

Government minister John Profumo sharing a mistress with a Soviet naval attaché was a godsend to the sharp-minded satirists of Private Eye magazine and BBC TV’s That Was The Week That Was in 1963, but not all comic swipes at the scandal hit their target. Although a Top 10 success on its original release, the lampooning in Fool Britannia is a little too broad and obvious.

Devised by crooner Newley and his songwriting partner Leslie Bricusse, the comedy relies too heavily on Carry Ontype jokes about party whips, while Newley’s then-wife Joan Collins’ lack of comic timing dilutes the lines she attempts to deliver as the woman at the centre of the affair, Christine Keeler. Sellers has more of an impact, although his impersonation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan isn’t as well-formed as Peter Cook’s in Beyond The Fringe a year or so earlier.

This extended reissue includes the 1964 pop EP released by the other woman in the scandal, Mandy Rice- Davies, which may possess equal novelty value. The whole package is no more than a tame historical artefact and doesn’t warrant repeated listening.

2 stars 2 stars

Acrobat | ACMCD 4317

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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