The Plank

Nov 14, 2019 Last reply: 6 years ago 24 Replies

It's a parody of the feature-length original.

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I don't know. I've seen it on TV a couple of times.

SteveW

I have always wondered why they made (at leat) two versions of it. There is another starring Tommy Cooper.

IIRC the original was longer and a cinema release. The second one (linked to here) was made for television 10+ years later to be shorter and feature faces known to TV viewers then.

Is that the classic Eric Sykes silent movie? If so look for something like A home of their or our own. Similar humour. Brian

With a lot of these old films the clothing and the streetscape/landscape and how things have altered is of as much interest as their subject, much of the material shown on the Talking Pictures TV channel is mundane in itself but as a social record the whole is interesting.

Some places have changed more than others. In the Plank the main road where the Police station was hasn?t changed too much.

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Barnes Bridge is easily recognisable as a landmark as it is seen by the many viewers of the boat race though I knew it as part of a walk I used to be taken on when I was around

5 .Mum still gets embarrassed when we recollect what I suddenly to do circa 1959, if you were rowing under that bridge then that precipitation you felt wasn?t rain.

I suspect the woodyard may have long been built on though. Might have a another look at the maps later.

GH

ARW explained :

Yep, seen it many times. They don't make them like that any more..

Marland explained on 15/11/2019 :

Yes, they make for interesting viewing.

One of a series of Eric Sykes specials made by Thames TV. Before 'reality' TV became the norm for entertainment.

I had a thought about an old film which was about using a plank with hole(s) cut in it to form toilet seat(s). From memory the piece de resistance was an 18 hole model made for a school outhouse. I thought it was called something like the specialist but Google doesn't help.

You must be thinking of the short film The Specialist (1966), based on the book of the same name:

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Thanks for the pointer. Then there's the old adage "as strong as a two hole sh*thouse"?

I have been trying to remember the name of a film, probably from the 1960s (I saw it between 1967 and 1973), which was about building a new estate of what might now be called social housing. Almost at the end, the letter-cutters finished the stone at the entrance - "This estate was built with the help of pubic donation". Gas, electricity and water came out of the wrong orifices, etc. I think it was a modest legnth full film (rather than a short film).

Anyone recognise it from my description?

"A Home of Your Own" It featured just about every known British actor.

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A clip:
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Thank you!

The Amazon listing says the DVD is not the same as the original.

Thank you - it did have some very clever bits - as well as the very obvious pratfalls.

YW. Apologies for the borked link, fixed now.

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