One of the finest Ealing comedies, this cosy, warm-hearted tale is quintessentially British, and essentially one joke, cleverly spun out for an hour and a half. Written by T.E.B. Clarke and directed by Henry Cornelius, there are super performances from a top-quality cast, headed by Stanley Holloway and Margaret Rutherford.
It's the late 1940s, and England - still enduring rationing - is sweltering under a heatwave. In London's Pimlico an unexploded Second World War bomb suddenly goes off, unearthing old treasure and papers. Local historian Professor Hatton Jones (Rutherford) discovers that the documents prove that Pimlico is actually a dependency of Burgundy, France.
Local residents, led by Arthur Pemberton (Holloway, pictured with Barbara Murray) decide to assert their right to be Burgundians, and set up border controls and customs barriers, freeing themselves from rationing. Naturally this is not acceptable to British officialdom and the situation rapidly escalates, with hilarious consequences...
Highly recommended.
Passport to Pimlico is a Film programme that first aired in 1949 and has been classified a U certificate.
