Sparrows Can't Sing

1963

1h 34m

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

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Comedy

Drama

Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.

Directors

Joan Littlewood

Writers

Stephen Lewis(writer by)

Joan Littlewood(screenplay by)

Stephen Lewis(screenplay by)

Stars

James Booth

Barbara Windsor

Roy Kinnear

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Photos6

Top cast

Charlie Gooding

Maggie Gooding

Fred Gooding

Bridgie Gooding

Jack

Bert

Nellie Gooding

Chunky

Georgie

Ted

Ted's Wife

Watchman

Perce

Caretaker

Queenie

Arnold

Momma

Gran

Directors

Joan Littlewood

Writers

Stephen Lewis(writer by)

Joan Littlewood(screenplay by)

Stephen Lewis(screenplay by)

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User reviews1

Review

Featured review

5/10

Well it all starts rather inauspiciously with Barbara Windsor singing the Lionel Bart penned title song. Good? Well, no - not very. Thereafter we discover that she ("Maggie") used to be married to "Charlie" (James Booth) who has just returned from being at sea. Thing is, their marital house has been demolished and she has moved on to a new life with bus driver "Bert" (George Sewell) and he is determined to get her back. The whole thing has a made for television look to it and though there is a formidable array of British comic acting talent on display, I found the writing to be really weak with the limitations of Miss Windsor as an actress being writ large as she really struggles to carry this (very lightly) comedic enterprise - riddled with innuendo and stereotype - for ninety minutes. It perhaps doesn't help that the narrative centres around life in a fairly pedestrian East End (of London) community and that after a short while there are so many suds you could run a Chinese laundry for a fortnight. It may well have resonated better in 1963 when it offered a plausible depiction of life in a small, tightly knit, community within a big city, but I am afraid now it has lost what potency it had. Cinema nostalgia it probably is if Cockney is your natural dialect. For the rest of us, it's just all rather dull.

Geronimo196725 Sep, 2022