The sex comedy of the 1970s was a particularly British phenomenon, borne out of a cocktail of Victorian reserve and the raucous seaside humour often seen mirrored in productions like the Benny Hill Show, the Carry On film series and Boris Johnson’s political ascent.
This genre found instant recognition and success, as showcased in the entertaining documentary, Saucy! Secrets of the British Sex Industry, aired on Channel 4, Sunday, 9pm. The show references how Adventures of a Taxi Driver, a film packed with nudity and crude humour, grossed more at the UK box office in 1976 than Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
While a more serious documentary might have used the sex comedy as an insight into the British mindset, Saucy! is unabashedly a celebration. Despite some reservations, the consensus is that the cheeky, provocative films of the 1970s were a golden age in UK cinema.
During the 1960s, when television began to pose a major threat and the allure of Hollywood was becoming hard to compete with, British cinema took a chance on the cruder, bawdier side of storytelling. These films, created on a shoestring budget and often considered in bad taste, encouraged viewers back to theatres, as described by Willy Roe, producer of movies such as Queen of the Blues and the Playbirds.
The emergence of this genre in the 1970s was not incidental. The following decade brought turmoil to Ireland in the form of mass unemployment and social unrest, epitomised by Charlie Haughey’s “Gubu” quote, however, it could be said that it was in the 1970s that Britain almost lost its narrative.
With constant political chaos, regular strikes and the loss of the hopefulness of the 1960s, the country was grappling with instability. Against this backdrop of constant upheaval, it’s not surprising that the public sought refuge in the light-hearted escapism offered by films like Adventures of a Taxi Driver and Confession of a Window Cleaner.
The documentary emphasises a key fact – these motion pictures were not outright pornography. This was primarily due to legal constraints in the UK at the time, prohibiting explicit nudity and sexual acts, insinuating they could only be suggested.
Additionally, the British mindset towards sex was quite unique – it was largely seen as a humorous matter. This is in stark contrast with the Continent, where pornography was akin to cutting-edge art, or Ireland, which viewed sex as a sinful act to be straight away succeeded by decades of reciting the rosary. The British found the whole concept amusing, which was evident in the ribald mischief of films from that period.
One noteworthy actor from that era, Robin Askwith, who starred in Confessions of a Window Cleaner, remembers, “People view sex and nudity as a source of amusement, they prefer it to be treated more light-heartedly.”
The female characters often depicted in these films were no more than actresses with limited opportunities, hence they diverged towards this sex-comic genre due to an absence of roles elsewhere. To briefly quote Penny Meredith, a notable actress from Ups and Downs of a Handyman, “Female parts weren’t prevalent at that time.” Although, they were, for the most part, conscious of their decisions. Linzi Drew, from Emmanuelle in Soho, claims, “I was never persuaded to do anything that I was uncomfortable with.”
However, there was a shady aspect to this industry, where typical British sex comedies would evolve into explicit pornography for the Continental audience. Secretly filmed extra scenes often exploited unsuspecting actresses, who later found out they were part of pornographic films through friends. Oliver Tobias, co-star to Joan Collins in the 1979 adaptation of ‘The Stud’, says, “Often body doubles were used without their consent and they would only find out much later. Nobody informed them.”
‘Saucy!’ intends to applaud the sex-comedy genre rather than analysing it critically. The belief is that viewers concur that these film pieces were an overlooked yet significant chapter in UK cinema’s evolution. Although it may not attract all viewers, those who find humour in others’ awkward nudity may find this societal commentary thoroughly amusing.