The boys and girls of the Upper Sixth at Angel Hill Grammar School are practising hard for the National Festival of School Orchestras. Their popular young music-loving house master Mr Dingle (John Mills), encourages them.
The new headmaster, Mr Frome (Cecil Parker), however, disapproves and threatens to close down the school band.
A ban is placed on purchasing new instruments, but the kids hit back by secretly acquiring their instruments on hire purchase, while Dingle plays honky tonk piano in the local pub to raise money to meet the payments. When Frome finds out, he fires the teacher.
The youngsters immediately go on strike and, led by head boy Nicky (Jeremy Spenser), barricade themselves in the gymnasium.
In the end, Mr Dingle is reinstated and the kids get their instruments.
It’s a lighthearted and exuberant British romp in glorious Technicolor – delightfully old-fashioned, but great fun to watch.
The school scenes were filmed at the Royal Masonic School in Bushey, Hertfordshire, which has since been converted into luxury apartments.
Mr Dingle
John Mills
Headmaster Frome
Cecil Parker
Routledge
John Salew
Mrs Castle
Elizabeth Kentish
Miss Morrow
Mona Washbourne
Miss Wyvern
Mary Merrall
Paterson, Sports Master
Derek Blomfield
Nicky
Jeremy Spenser
Paulette
Dorothy Bromiley
Ginger
Brian Smith
Browning
Wilfred Downing
Morris
Robert Dickens
Crowther
Dawson France
Peggy
Carole Shelley
Lawson
Richard O’Sullivan
Mr Morris
Eddie Byrne
School Inspector
Russell Waters
Director
Cyril Frankel