The Love Ban

1973 British film by Ralph Thomas

25 January 1973 (1973-01-25)

Running time

96 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£98,121^[1]Box office£110,093^[1]

The Love Ban (also known as It's a 2'6" Above the Ground World, It's a Two Feet Six Inches above the Ground World and Anyone for Sex?) is a 1973 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Hywel Bennett, Nanette Newman and Milo O'Shea.^[2] It was written by Kevin Laffan based on his 1969 play It's a 2'6" Above the Ground World. Laffan was one of 14 children from a devout Roman Catholic family and his critical view on the Church's stance on birth control was a recurring theme of his work.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Plot

A married couple with six children experience marital difficulties. Wife Kate refuses to sleep with husband Mick until he uses birth control, while their live-in au-pair falls pregnant.

Cast

Hywel Bennett as Mick Goonahan
Nanette Newman as Kate Goonahan
Milo O'Shea as Father Andrew
Angharad Rees as Jackie
Nicky Henson as Baker
Georgina Hale as Joyce
Madeline Smith as Miss Partridge
Peter Barkworth as bra factory director
John Cleese as contraceptives lecturer
Marianne Stone as customer in chemists shop
Nina Baden-Semper as Skyline waitress
Cheryl Hall as pregnant woman
Jacki Piper as pregnant woman
David Howey as barber
Tommy Godfrey as barber
James Leith as policeman
Tony Haygarth as policeman

Production

The film was shot at Shepperton Studios with sets designed by the art director Anthony Pratt.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "If, as on current form it thoroughly deserves to, the British film industry of the early Seventies comes to be remembered primarily for its abysmal comedies, then this quasi-sociological dirty joke about religio-sexual hang-ups is unlikely to be quoted as a shining exception. The halting screenplay and Ralph Thomas' torpid, direction have drained the life out of Kevin Laffan's popular stage play, and no amount of back-up (Christmas for sentimentalists, John Cleese for sophisticates) can disguise the fact. The film is also insultingly ambivalent, smugly sticking up (as Mr. Thomas, might have put it) for women's lib with its central message, while at the same time offering cheap thrills and easy laughs on the side by filling the screen with capering nudes and demonstrating the apocryphal incompetence of all lady drivers. Of the ill-used cast, only the admirable Nanette Newman manages on occasion to make one believe that the script has, underneath all the tired innuendo, something seriously funny to say."^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 357. Income is distributor's receipts, combined domestic and international, as at 31 Dec 1978.
^ "The Love Ban". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
^ Kevin Laffan obituary at The Telegraph
^ Kevin Laffan obituary at The Independent
^ Maclean, Margaret. "Playwright Kevin Laffan".
^ THEATRE: A popular giant Bryden, Ronald. The Observer (1901- 2003) [London (UK)] 07 Dec 1969: 40D.
^ "The Love Ban". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 40 (468): 29. 1 January 1973 – via ProQuest.