Rockets Galore

The inhabitants of Todday are content to live their lives in peace and quiet, until, that is, the government decides their little corner of the world would be the perfect place for a rocket launch site.

It's completely silly, and very "British", but I rather enjoyed this daft caper about the inhabitants of the tiny island of "Todday" who resist Government plans to militarise their homeland. It is clearly intended as a sequel to "Whisky Galore" with a few of the same characters rallying to the cause. Like many of Compton Mackenzie's stories, it is quirkily put together offering us loads of characters with idio(t)synchracies that raise a smile rather than a guffaw. Donald Sinden is completely lost here, though. His typically theatrical style of acting drags this down from an otherwise, gently entertaining base. The rest of the cast - Gordon Jackson, Noel Purcell and Duncan Macrae help to pepper the slightly dull script with some charismatic nostalgia for the first film, and demonstrate the feistiness and independence of these Scottish islanders who want no law but their own... It is fun, maybe not great, but still enjoyable.