Brian Stimpson (John Cleese) is the punctilious and highly disciplined headmaster of a Gloucestershire comprehensive school who sets out to chair the annual Headmasters’ Conference in Norwich – the pinnacle of his career.
But he misses the train and, with his timing awry, his world begins to fall apart and his whole moral fabric is torn to shreds.
He hijacks a lift from a pupil (Sharon Maiden) who has been canoodling with the music master but the harder he tries to get to Norwich on time, the more the gods twist the knife within the guts of his obsessive rectitude, resulting in increasingly hair-raising escapades en route across the country.
He ends up as a careless driver, telephone box vandal and worse as Stimpson’s wife (Alison Steadman) chases after him with a party of confused geriatrics, assorted policemen, the Norwich CID, the Regional Crime Squad and outraged parents following him into the country house conference centre.
Cleese dominates the film, but hard as he tries to conceal it, a certain Mr Fawlty tends to surface, if only in the mind’s eye.
Brian Stimpson
John Cleese Ted
Howard Lloyd-Lewis Clint
Jonathan Bowater Mr Jolly
Stephen Moore Gwenda Stimpson
Alison Steadman Streaker
Robert Wilkinson Glen Scully
Mark Burdis Mandy Kostakis
Nadia Sawalha Paul Stimpson
Chip Sweeney Laura Wisely
Sharon Maiden Mrs Trellis
Joan Hickson Mrs Wheel
Constance Chapman Mrs Way
Ann Way Mrs Wisely
Pat Keen Mr Wisely
Geoffrey Hutchings Pat
Penelope Wilton
Director
Christopher Morahan
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