SPARROWS CAN'T SING is a kitchen sink comedy drama from the early 1960s, a film I'd never heard of before watching but one which turns out to provide fitting snapshot of the era. James Booth plays a sailor who returns home to find his home demolished (the clearing of the slums plays an important backdrop role here) and his wife Barbara Windsor gone. He proceeds to hunt for her, but this narrative takes a backseat to the various interactions between larger-than-life supporting characters. Much of it is played for laughs, with Windsor only slightly more serious than in her CARRY ON roles and Roy Kinnear providing plenty of chuckles. The supporting cast is quite extraordinary and packed to the brim with familiar faces. Surprisingly enough this was co-written by Stephen Lewis, who has a small role playing a familiar type of character for him.

Some interesting eccentric characterizations makes this version of a short-lived British play slightly entertaining but obnoxious in its characterizations. The story of a returning sailor (James Booth) finding out that his wife Barbara Windsor has shacked up with a another man and is pushing around a baby of unknown fatherhood is unpleasant, and the nosey characters interfering in the situation makes it even more difficult to have any sympathy for anybody here. not only is his wife not where he left her, the place where he left her is not where he left it. it is an interesting look at London's East side in the 1960s, but unless you have an interest in this type of culture, finding interest within this film will be very difficult to maintain.

The nosy characters start with the big apartment building's doorman, a character so vile that he takes glee in seeing visitors cars towed, offering unsolicited advice when it is not wanted, and basically never shutting up. Older nosy neighbors do pretty much the same thing, making unwanted comments as people knock on her neighbor's door, and eventually, it becomes quite tiring to deal with this over and over. reality maybe a slice of life here, but it is not a sweet slice. the location footage is interesting however, but that's not enough to make this into a good movie.

Having loaned out their club to the company those naughty boys from Vallance Road did poke their noses around the sets whilst "Sparrers can't Sing" was in production but,like the celebrity gangsters of the 21st century,all they wanted was to be famous.A few quid changed hands and they ambled off,satisfied with the "respect" that had been shown.This was the old East End,a far cry from the emasculated P.C. neverland presented to us by the BBC's flagship soap.Not too many Mockneys in the cast either,young Londoners,bursting with energy and talent filled many of the major roles.Miss Barbara Windsor is outstanding as the female lead.What a tragedy it is that she has turned into a caricature of a caricature in the ensuing 43 years,for in SCS she was sharp,sexy and funny.She also sang the title song in a very pleasing voice,indeed she is still singing today,I recently heard some songs she recorded with Terry Seabrook on piano and very good they are too. Theatre Workshop veteran Miss Joan Littlewood was the brains behind SCS. Based at the Theatre Royal in nearby Stratford she believed in making drama accessible to people other than those who frequented West End plays. She had a spectacular success with "Fings ain't wot they used to be" and hoped to follow it up with SCS but failed to take into account the fact that the success of "Fings" was largely due to a clever and tuneful Lionel Bart score.The book,written by ex-crim Mr Frank Norman,has its wry moments,but Mr Bart's contribution was the greater. As more or less a straight play SCS could not compare to its predecessor.It was written by Mr Stephen Lewis,later to create the great "Blakey" in "On the Buses",who appears in a small part in the film. It is set on the shiny new estates where high rise mixed with prefab on the site of the old slums,long before the discovery of "concrete cancer" and "tower block ennui".It is sad to reflect that the Londoners' optimism with their brave new world was not destined to last. On it's release SCS was not seen as anything special and for some reason it rarely turns up on TV so it is not widely known except to moviegoers of a certain age.Made less than 20 years after the second world war it features a community rather than a "community".If the distinction either annoys or escapes you perhaps you had better give it a miss for these Eastenders live a very different life to the armchair cockneys of Albert Square.Miss Littlewood is not presenting the East End as she believed it should be,she is presenting it as it actually was.The occupants of her East end might not get New Labour's seal of approval, but they represent humanity with all its marvellous faults and virtues, not some milquetoast trawl through the pages of "Spotlight".