Crooks In Cloisters [DVD] [1964]

Portloe, which has changed very little in 40 years, is noteworthy for being the beautiful fictional seaside village of St Gweep where the 2002 'Wild West' TV comedy series starring Dawn French was made.

The Carry On series began 4 years earlier (1959) and Crooks in Cloisters (CiC) includes two of the stars from this popular series, Barbara Windsor and Bernard Cribbins. Other well-known characters in CiC include Wilfred Bramble (Steptoe & Son), Melvyn Hayes (It Ain't Half Hot Mum) and Francesca Annis, a well-known British actress in one of her early roles.

The CiC storyline concerns a gang of City-based crooks who narrowly escapes the Law following a train robbery by retiring to a fictional island off the coast of Cornwall called St Pancras. On the island is a monastery which was vacated by the previous monastic order because they could not make a living from cultivating the land. The leader of the crooks, Ronald Fraser (Flight of the Phoenix), acquires the island from the previous owners and becomes the Father Superior to the gang who are forced to endure unfamiliar monastic duties such as growing fruit and vegitables and producing farm and dairy products. They do all this in order to avoid attracting the unwanted attention of the local inhabitants including the police. Meanwhile they continue with their previous criminal occupations of printing counterfeit money, melting down stolen gold and silver artifacts, splitting precious stones, resetting jewelry and re-labeling stolen fur coats for resale. The crooks try hard to maintain every appearance of being genuine monks but the locals begin to suspect there is something not quite right about the new order when the monastery bells ring out at the wrong times of the day, i.e. not on opening and closing time. Wilfred Bramble, a local fisherman, tour guide and ex-smuggler, discovers their secret when he spots Barbara Windsor wearing a monk's habit??? However, when offered large sums of money he happily assists the crooks by ferrying their stolen booty to and from the island. The crooks initially find life on the island extremely hard because they are used to comfortable City life. However, over the course of about a year they come to appreciate the benefits of monastic solitude and they gradually acquire new skills that make the rudimentary lifestyle easier to bear. Eventually they yearn for the simple, honest, stress-free lifestyle and don't wish to leave the island. However, their Father Superior has other plans. Unfortunately their habit of betting large sums money on horses comes to the attention of the Law and an unwelcome surprise awaits them when the decide to leave the island for good and return to the City as reformed criminals.

This is a comedy for all the family to enjoy and is unlike the Carry Ons, except possibly for some of the early ones, for example, Carry On Sergeant and Carry On Cabby. Later Carry Ons tend towards more adult humour and a greater reliance on double entendre. Crooks in Cloisters provides an enjoyable 90 minutes of entertainment.