When a rock band at the top of their game suddenly loses their leader, their direction becomes questionable. All the band members know is that the leader's clothes were found at the edge of a waterfront and he had not been seen since. To replace their missing leader, they hire a new band member who shakes up their thoughts of the band. But the biggest changes come when the band decides to go into seclusion to develop new songs and a new sound.
They rent a mansion from an aristocratic couple who are in need of money. When the staff hired to be on hand when the band arrives do not show, the couple decides to act as the butler, Benson, and the cook, Margaret. The obvious conflicts between the two cultures occur.
Review
Watching this as the English person I tend to be (when I'm not reminding people that most of my family is actually Canadian), I found this film very amusing on a number of levels. Thankfully, one of those levels was the intended one (I think...), although I doubt this film was ever a contender for best comedy, its harmless enough and delivers an entertaining story.
On another level I just loved the whole poking fun at the English stereotypes, so often done badly in overseas films, this one seemed a bit more clued in - possibly due to the excellent casting of Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright, fantastic british actors who were brilliant in their roles, and then Martin Clunes, who at the time of making this film was definately on top of his game in the UK for comedic performances. Then there's the level of also having Jaimz Woolvett in a role that he seemed to enjoy a lot, where he's not playing a psycho or a madman, just a musician in a band, who seemed a lot of the time to be the only one who knew what they were doing musically!
The one question people ask me when they mention this film is 'do you see Jaimz playing or singing?' and the answer is yes to both. You also see him playing cricket, or trying to and doing a spot of Morris Dancing, this film has everything...