Casanova '73




‘Casanova ‘73’ was a smutty sit com broadcast on the BBC in 1973. It starred perennial lech Leslie Phillips as Henry Newhouse (Newhouse? What would that be in, say, Italian? Casa-something?) a successful PR man with a nice home, a lovely wife and a blond moustache. Newhouse, however, despite his best intentions, just can’t keep it in his trousers and that leads to a load of unfunny running about and semi-naked people hiding in wardrobes and stuff.  Relentlessly puerile and surprisingly unambiguous for an early evening show, ‘Casanova ‘73’ was soon shuffled off to a graveyard slot (it was swapped with ‘Mastermind’, helping the latter show become successful) and, after the first series, unceremoniously axed.



Zoom photography is a feature of the production.

 Genius writers Galton and Simpson are well below par here – their best work is full of wit and subtlety and poignancy and, most of all, flawed, identifiable human characters in slightly desperate situations - people who, despite their faults, are sympathetic: Henry Newhouse is just a sleazy twat.     



He's kissing Maureen Lipman, presumably to shut her up.

 Here’s the title sequence. They might as well have called the show ‘Phwoar’, or, perhaps, 'Dirty Bitches'. Listen to that laughter track: those canned people are lapping this shit up.