Very Important Person. Sir Ernest Pease KBE FRS / Lt. Farrow, RN (James Robertson Justice). Copyright: Independent Artists
Very Important Person

Very Important Person

  • 1961 film

1961 film spoofing stiff-upper-lipped war dramas, starring James Robertson Justice as a bombastic scientist who ends up in a PoW camp. Also features Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Eric Sykes, Richard Wattis, Colin Gordon and more.

Very Important Person. Image shows from L to R: Sir Ernest Pease KBE FRS / Lt. Farrow, RN (James Robertson Justice), Jimmy Cooper (Leslie Phillips). Copyright: Independent Artists

Key details

Genre
Film
Released
1961
Stars
James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Eric Sykes, Richard Wattis, Colin Gordon, John Le Mesurier, Norman Bird and more
Writers
Jack Davies and Henry Blyth
Director
Ken Annakin
Producers
Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn
Company

Esteemed scientist and engineer Sir Earnest Farse is being honoured on television programme Memory Album when he is prompted to recall a somewhat eventful few months during the Second World War...

Sent on a top secret, undercover reconnaissance mission over Germany at the direct request of the War Cabinet, the Professor - then the Director of Applied Aeronautical Science at a high-tech research base - finds himself shot down and held by the Nazis at a PoW camp.

In the guise of Royal Navy Lieutenant Farrow, his presence, demeanour - and fluent German - initially raise his fellow captives' suspicions, but when a coded order from Churchill himself arrives insisting that Farrow be helped to escape as a priority, it's all hands on deck to assist the crotchety genius's plans.

Additional details

UK certificate
U
Duration
94 minutes
UK release
Tuesday 25th April 1961
Distributors

The Rank Organisation

Also known as
  • A Coming-Out Party (US title)
Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Black and white

Website links

Broadcast details

Most recent repeats
  • Monday 15th June 2020 at 1:15pm on TPTV
  • Tuesday 17th March 2020 at 3:05pm on TPTV
  • Sunday 8th December 2019 at 12:00pm on TPTV

Recording details

  • Independent Artists Studios