No Sex Please, We're British
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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No Sex Please, We're British is a British comedic play written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott and first staged in London's West End in 1971. It was unanimously panned by critics, but still ran for nearly a decade to packed audiences. It did not share the same success with American audiences, running for only 16 performances on Broadway in early 1973. However, it still remains popular in community theatre.
The plot
The farce surrounds an assistant bank manager (Peter Hunter) who lives above his bank with his new bride Frances. When Frances innocently sends a mail order off for some Scandinavian glassware, what comes back is Scandinavian pornography. The two, along with the bank's frantic chief cashier Brian Runnicles, must decide what to do with the veritable floods of pornography, photographs, books, films and eventually girls that threaten to engulf this happy couple. The matter is considerably complicated by Eleanor (Peter's mother), Mr. Bromhead (his boss), Mr. Needham (a visiting bank inspector), and Vernon Paul (a police superintendent).
Film version
A film version starring Ronnie Corbett as Brian was made in 1973. There were many alterations to the script, including significant changes in dialogue, plot elements and, most notably, to names: "Eleanor" was changed to "Bertha", "Mr. Bromhead" was changed to "Mr. Bromley", and "Peter" and "Frances" became "David" and "Penny", respectively. Michael Crawford, who played the role of Brian Runnicles on stage, turned down the movie version.
