CinemaSerf

Jul 23, 2023

6.0

Hattie Jacques rules the nurses with a rod of iron as the matron; Wilfred Hyde-White has them all dancing to his tune as the "Colonel" and the rest of patients seem to be in far more danger inside this ward in the "Haven Hospital" than they might be outside walking down the motorway! Things lurch from minor disaster to minor disaster until "Jack" (Leslie Phillips) has to have his bunion operation deferred. He has other, urgent, plans and after a few glasses of bubbly the patients decide that this surgery is a dawdle, take over a theatre in the dead of night and attempt to remove it themselves! Enough to make your eyes water! Jacques was always in her element as the authoritarian figure and there are some fun pranks afoot to get revenge for her ruthlessness from both the poorly folks and from her put-upon nursing staff too. The humour is simple, there's a touch of slapstick and even a wee bit of romance - as well as some over sterilised catheter tubes and plenty of quirky character-driven sub-plots to give each of the cast their moment in the sun. Not my favourite, it's a bit too obvious much of the time - but it's still watchable if you get into the (surgical) spirit of the thing.