Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush *** (1968, Barry Evans, Judy Geeson, Moyra Fraser, Denholm Elliott, Michael Bates, Angela Scoular, Sheila White, Adrienne Posta, Diane Keen) – Classic Movie Review 9003

Director Clive Donner’s 1968 British Swinging Sixties British comedy drama Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush stars Barry Evans as schoolboy Jamie McGregor, a virgin who seems to prefer his Walter Mitty fantasies to actual girls.

Base on the novel by Hunter Davies, this entertaining, frank, modish Swinging England teen comedy veers between being sexist, daft and thoughtful.

As Mary Gloucester, Judy Geeson heads a flock of ‘birds’ who seem to be in Evans’s sights. Can he get her and if so does he actually want her? Angela Scoular also stars as Caroline Beauchamp.

Old hands like Moyra Fraser and Michael Bates (as Evans’s parents) and Denholm Elliott and Maxine Audley (as Scoular’s parents) deliver amusingly broad, sent-up performances, while the cast is packed full with bright young actors then going places. The film is a minor Sixties icon, now, and a faded snapshot of a bygone age. And there is noteworthy music of the time by Sixties notables Steve Winwood and Traffic, and the Spencer Davis Group. ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’ is written and performed by Steve Winwood and Traffic.

Brits will like to know that it was shot at Stevenage new town, Hertfordshire, and be fascinated to see how it looked back then.

Hunter Davies writes the screenplay from his own novel, with additional dialogue by the associate producer, Larry Kramer.

Barry Evans stars in Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968).Evans was actually 24, and after a shaky movie career, had TV hits with Doctor in the House (1969-70), Doctor at Large (1971) and Mind Your Language (1977-81) before turning to cab driving when his career slumped in the Eighties. He was found dead in his bungalow home on 11 February 1997 in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England, with bottles of whisky and aspirins nearby, aged 53. A youth was charged with his murder, but acquitted on lack of evidence, and the coroner later recorded an open verdict.

Also in the cast are Moyra Fraser, Denholm Elliott, Michael Bates, Angela Scoular, Sheila White, Adrienne Posta, Diane Keen, Vanessa Howard, Maxine Audley, Christopher Timothy, Nicky Henson, Allan Warren, Roy Holder, George Layton, Gareth Robinson, Oliver Cotton, Andrew Hamilton, Sally Avory, Erika Raffael, Cavan Kendall, Trevor Jones, Gillie Austin, Christopher Mitchell, Pauline Challoner, Angela Pleasence, Marianne Stone and Spencer Davis.

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush is directed by Clive Donner, runs 95 minutes, is made by Giant Film Production, is released by United Artists, is written by Hunter Davies and Larry Kramer (additional dialogue), based on the novel by Hunter Davies, is shot by Alex Thompson, is produced by Larry Kramer (associate producer) and Clive Donner (producer) and is scored by Simon Napier-Bell, with Art Direction by Brian Eatwell.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9003

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