Synopsis
A small English village is in turmoil with the arrival of a pop star and his wife. He soon becomes the conductor of the local brass band after the previous conductor is criticized for the false notes played by the brass band.
The Shillingbury Blowers
Cast
Releases by Date
Theatrical
-
UK
Releases by Country
UK
06 Jan 1980
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
More-
It's no Brassed Off. But this charming little film has a warm heart and an old fashioned air to it. Its very difficult to place the year it is meant to be set in. And the instrument 'acting' isn't very convincing. Trevor Howard brings a touch of class though.
-
As to weather this got a cinema release I'm not sure it certainly feels more like a made for TV special. The film is a simple, charming, gentle comedy drama centred around a village brass band. Trevor Howard plays rather beneath him in such slight fare. However Jack Douglas is excellent (and not as over the top as in the "Carry ons") John le Mesurier is also on form and looking far more healthy than in the last series of Dad's Army two years before.
-
After a pop star moves into a small rural village he takes over the infamously incompetent local brass band, booting out an elderly Trevor Howard. Infuriated, the brass band stage a strike which inadvertently makes them perform much better, putting them in the running for national awards. But in the end their own stubbornness might bring everything crashing down.
It’s a feature length pilot for a tv show, a simple and charming little English village story about grumpy villagers and out of towners coming together in mutual antipathy to build a local legend. I enjoyed it.
-
I’m sure I watched this “back in the day” on ITV, probably before I began logging everything.
It’s no BRASSED OFF! But it exudes that charming late 70s/early 80s British ambience that I remember fondly. An ending would’ve been nice though. -
I had never heard of this film until just now when I stumbled upon it amongst a collection of Trevor Howard features. - and I'm glad I did! Howard is the rather aptly nicknamed "Saltie", an elderly gent living in the eponymous village charged with leading their brass band. After a council meeting at which they finally acknowledge that these musicians are to music what Herod was to childcare, he resigns in a fit of pique. They decide to ask new pub landlord "Peter" (Robin Nedwell) to take his place and he, egged on by his enthusiastic-to-fit-in wife "Sally" (Diane Keen), accepts. Before arriving at the village he was a music producer and so when the opening cacophony hurts his…
-
A rewatch after seeing this when it was first on TV 38 years ago. This quaint tale of a village brass band has aspirations of being a Ealing comedy but falls short of the mark. The setting of a seventies English village put me more in mind of the Hammer horror films and I was left anticipating some casual satanic murders or witch burning. But still good to see this again and to remember the TV shows that followed on from it - 'Shillingbury Tales' and 'Cuffy'.