Sparrows Can't Sing (1963)

★ 5.1 1h 34m IMDb

Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.

Sparrows Can't Sing

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Cast

James Booth
James Booth as Charlie Gooding Died 2005 · Croydon, Surrey, England, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Booth (born David Geeves; 19 December 1927 - 11 August 2005) was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter. Though handsome enough to pl...
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor as Maggie Gooding Died 2020 · Shoreditch, London, England, UK Dame Barbara Windsor, DBE (born Barbara Ann Deeks; 6 August 1937 - 10 December 2020) was an English actress, known for her appearances in the Carry On films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC O...
Roy Kinnear
Roy Kinnear as Fred Gooding Died 1988 · Wigan, Lancashire, England, UK Roy Mitchell Kinnear (January 8, 1934 – September 20, 1988) was an English character actor and comedian. He was known for his acting roles in movies such as Henry Salt in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & t...
Avis Bunnage
Avis Bunnage as Bridgie Gooding Died 1990 · Manchester, England, UK ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Avis Bunnage (22 April 1923, Manchester, England, UK – 4 October 1990, England) was a British actress of film, stage and television. She attended Manley Par...
Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy as Jack Died 2025 · Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England, UK Brian Trevor John Murphy (25 September 1932 – 2 February 2025) was an English actor and comedian, best known as the henpecked husband George Roper in the popular sitcom Man About the House and its spi...
George Sewell
George Sewell as Bert Died 2007 · Hoxton, London, England, UK George Sewell (31 August 1924 – 2 April 2007) was an English actor, best known for his television roles, but also active on stage and in films. The son of a Hoxton printer and a florist, Sewell left s...

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 5/10 Sep 25, 2022
Well it all starts rather inauspiciously with Barbara Windsor singing the Lionel Bart penned title song. Good? Well, no - not very. Thereafter we discover that she ("Maggie") used to be married to "Charlie" (James Booth) who has just returned from being at sea. Thing is, their marital house has been demolished and she has moved on to a new life with bus driver "Bert" (George Sewell) and he is determined to get her back. The whole thing has a made for television look to it and though there is a formidable array of British comic acting talent on display, I found the writing to be really weak with the limitations of Miss Windsor as an actress being writ large as she really struggles to carry this (very lightly) comedic enterprise - riddled with innuendo and stereotype - for ninety minutes. It perhaps doesn't help that the narrative centres around life in a fairly pedestrian East End (of London) community and that after a short while there are so many suds you could run a Chinese laundry for a fortnight. It may well have resonated better in 1963 when it offered a plausible depiction of life in a small, tightly knit, community within a big city, but I am afraid now it has lost what potency it had. Cinema nostalgia it probably is if Cockney is your natural dialect. For the rest of us, it's just all rather dull.

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