Doctor in Distress
One of the Funniest Doctor Films Ever!
The fifth Doctor film in the series produced by Betty E Box and Ralph Thomas marks the very final appearance of Simon Sparrow, who after numerous public complaints for missing the preceding film, returned with great expectation and aplomb. In many ways this was a transitional film as Dirk Bogarde, handed over the reins of the series to the more flamboyant comedy actor Leslie Phillips, a real ladies man. Phillips had already played in several films for Rank as a more comedy focused actor. This was a step up for Leslie Phillips, from Doctor in Love as he takes more of a central role in the film. Indeed Leslie remained on through to the last film in the series along with James Robinson Justice, although the veteran Scottish actor was pretty much nowhere to be seen in the final chapter of the series.
Though Justice’s character from most of the other film (Lancelot Sprout) plays a major part in this film, in fact he’s probably the main character, much like he was in the last half hour of Doctor in Love. After suffering a severe back injury, he’s put to rest at home and despite not physically damaged by the fall, he becomes deluded and paranoid, as he sleeps walks out of his bed every night, and goes downstairs to play the piano. He’s also convinced his girlfriend is cheating on him and thus hires a detective to follow her. This leaves Sparrow to do a bit of work on Sprout, not as a doctor but as a colleague and a friend.
Although this film does overstay its welcome a little bit. (It is the longest film in the series). It’s still a huge amount of fun to watch and makes good use of creating some proper character development, which you didn’t really get in any of the other doctor films. (Even though At Large was hilarious and my personal favourite of the series.) You didn’t really learn very much about Sparrow’s character, not like you do about Sprout in this film, which itself garners a lot of laughs, and even though Bogarde doesn’t actually have that big a role as he did in the other three Doctors films he starred in. He still gives a really good performance as Sparrow and as well as a really nice farewell to this character as a whole.
So while there are still small flaws in this film, they can be easily overlooked by how enjoyable this episode of the Doctor series is to watch.
8/10 – Calum Roberts