We poor old Brits have never been ashamed to demonstrate how embarrassed we are about anything sexual. This is why the farce No Sex Please, We're British - with a plot which centred on unwelcome pornography arriving at a small local bank branch - did so well on stage.

This film adaptation shows its stage origins very clearly - you can hear every line and see every action as if it was taking place on stage. The trouble is that a line which is saucy, cheesy, and seaside postcard-y in terms of double entendre punning may work very well on stage: the audience will seize on it and it will form part of a dialogue between cast and audience, where the audience's huge enjoyment of rude and corny humour delivered with gusto feeds back to the cast who, in turn, devour the audience response and give it back in kind. Then deliver those same lines from a cinema screen - or, worse, a TV screen - and they emerge only to fall flat on their face. This sex face simply does not work as a film.

But it is worth watching for the stellar cast of UK TV talent on show, all working their socks off to no avail.

I thought No Sex Please: We're British was an excellent British farce/sex comedy of the early 1970s. Much of the film's success comes down to the casting of no less than Ronnie Corbett in the central role, taking over from Michael Crawford who played the part on stage. Corbett is an exceptional delight here and thoroughly, thoroughly amusing; I can't imagine anyone else playing the role so successfully. He's a delight every time he's on screen, which is for most of the film.

The story is simple stuff, but effective: the mild-mannered employees of a bank are shocked when a mix-up means that they start receiving pornography through the post. The subsequent farcical storytelling sees them trying to get rid of said pornography, which just keeps on turning up, and trying to avoid the authorities finding out both in the form of their own boss and the local police.

This is cracking stuff, fast-paced and never less than funny; an exemplary British cast of familiar faces is also well chosen to play in support. Ian Ogilvy and Susan Penhaligon take the straight-man roles and do very well, while Arthur Lowe plays a familiar part with relish. Beryl Reid is delightful while the cameos from the likes of Michael Ripper, Frank Thornton, David Swift, Gerald Sim, Brian Wilde, and Robin Askwith are a hoot. Watch out for Margaret Nolan and Valerie Leon in an eye-popping double act at the film's climax.

This adaption of a British stage play in entertaining enough, and a nice traditional farce in many ways.

With a nice central performance from the dearly missed Ronnie Corbett this film has many funny moments.

As other people have said in their own reviews I think this material probably would have worked better on stage, and suffers somewhat in translation, but it makes for an enjoyable enough 80 minutes or so.