Toby Atkin-Wright

Our evening entertainment continued with “The Adventures of Barry McKenzie” (1972), a rather silly Australian film. Based on a character created by Barry Humphreys for a Private Eye comic strip, the plot concerns Barry McKenzie, a young Australian, visiting Britain with his aunt Edna Everage. With the cast including Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Dennis Price, Julie Covington, and Joan Bakewell, there is a richness of talent and a lot of good — and crude — jokes.

The film was a significant success, spawning a sequel, buoying up the Australian film industry, and launching the career of director Bruce Beresford (who went on to direct the Oscar-winning “Driving Miss Daisy”).

I’d love to see the 1974 sequel “Barry McKenzie Holds His Own”, which featured Donald Pleasance as the villain Count von Plasma.

Our evening entertainment continued with “The Adventures of Barry McKenzie” (1972), a rather silly Australian film. Based on a character created by Barry Humphreys for a Private Eye comic strip, the plot concerns Barry McKenzie, a young Australian, visiting Britain with his aunt Edna Everage. With the cast including Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Dennis Price, Julie Covington, and Joan Bakewell, there is a richness of talent and a lot of good — and crude — jokes.

The film was a significant success, spawning a sequel, buoying up the Australian film industry, and launching the career of director Bruce Beresford (who went on to direct the Oscar-winning “Driving Miss Daisy”).

I’d love to see the 1974 sequel “Barry McKenzie Holds His Own”, which featured Donald Pleasance as the villain Count von Plasma.