Review for Casanova '73

At last. This often mentioned, rarely seen classic will be a welcome release for archive TV fans. Anything penned by Galton and Simpson (Hancock, Steptoe & Son) has to be worth a look and ‘Casanova ‘73’ is no exception.


Despite hitting all its viewing targets it ran for just one short season (7 episodes – all included here), stopped in its prime by protestors like Mary Whitehouse, who deluged the BBC with complaints about its prurience and blatant approach to sex.  In fact, just part way through its run, it got nudged further up the scheduling to a late night slot but even this did nothing to placate the irrepressible Mary Whitehouse and her ilk.


What a shame. Oh – it’s no classic (don’t expect anything even nudging the comedic brilliance of Hancock or Steptoe) but it’s perfectly good farcical fare, delivered with great aplomb by Leslie Phillips in his absolute prime.


Phillips plays the incorrigible rogue, Henry Newhouse, a smarmy PR Executive who, despite being in his 40’s and ‘happily married’ spends an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to avail himself of any available totty (to use the period vernacular). This gets him into deep trouble, frequently spilling into pure Brian Rix farce and often ending with Phillips hiding in a wardrobe or some such thing.
This is a series very much of its time. If it was made now it would have to be played for ‘Austin Powers’ post-modernist irony. You just wouldn’t get away with such relentless sexism, despite the fact that inevitably it backfires in some way for the hapless Newhouse.


But at 30 minutes a shot, it’s all great fun. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing Phillips cooing over some new girl one minute whilst coming up with preposterous excuses to his wife the next?

He’s not a particularly likable character either. In the first episode for example, he spends the whole time trying to intercept the post in case his wife should spot a letter from an air stewardess that Phillips has bedded. He can only relax when he reads in the paper that she has been eaten by a Shark in Australia. Whew! That’s alright then.


There are also slightly racist and gay jokes though these shouldn’t be judged too harshly. They merely reflect the acceptable rapport of the time. Whilst accusations of sexism could be levelled at the series, it could also be saliently argued that the series differed from many comedies of the time because all those involved (including the ladies) seemed to really be enjoying recreational sex.
Every episode features some philandering with no doubt left as to the intent. Even the title sequence features a sexy girl filling up his car with special emphasis on her poking the nozzle in the hole, with accompanying audience laughter. No wonder Mary Whitehouse got her knickers in a twist – the mad mare. It’s worth picking this up and playing it just to stick two fingers up to the movement she headed up. In this reviewer’s opinion of course.

I don’t know whether the title of the show is any kind of tribute to the 1965 Italian film, ‘Casanova 70’, or whether that’s just a coincidence. Galton and Simpson are a learned duo and such a nod is not impossible. The fact that it also sported a tag-line, ‘the adventures of a 20th Century libertine’, suggests it might have been. Or maybe just a nod to the BBC drama (‘Casanova’) which had aired just a year or so before. Phillips dominates throughout but is ably abetted by his sanguine wife, Jan Holden, who looks a little older than Phillips.

Episodes range from the opening ‘letter interception’ piece which sets up the two principles perfectly, through to destroying his business partners flat in an effort to find a bug he believes will expose the fact that he has been sleeping with his wife, to seducing a teacher that his son photographed naked whilst at boarding school, to the exceptionally non-PC idea that he should help is God-daughter ‘practice’ before her wedding night (really?!!) to falling for a German beauty queen.



The ‘talent’ (in every sense) includes the delightful Madeline Smith and even an early performance from Maureen Lipman. The series looks in fine fettle and includes a couple of features worth a look. The interview with a contemporary Phillips shows that, despite his age, he is as utterly charming as ever – a thoroughly likable bloke. He also talks with tremendous fondness about the series and its cancellation clearly still rankles with him to this day. There is a ‘text’ statement from Galton and Simpson about the series – a cheeky declaration that ‘sex is fun’; a final dig at Whitehouse and her judgemental cohorts. There are also text based filmographies and a picture gallery.

All in all a set you won’t want to miss.