Two Way Stretch

Although usually billed as a “Peter Sellers film” and starring him in what amounts to the lead role, Two Way Stretch is much more of an ensemble piece than you might expect. Even within the confines of his character Dodger Lane’s cell, he is part of a trio, alongside Jelly Night (Sellers long-time friend and frequent collaborator David Lodge) and Lennie Price (Bernard Cribbins, just a few years into his career).

The three of them, with Dodger to the fore, essentially rule the roost, with milk delivered and a handy stash of booze tucked away. The warden, Jenkins (George Woodbridge), is also a soft touch, while the governor (Maurice Denham) is more interested in his marrows – yes, this is the sort of level of humour employed by John Warren and Len Heath’s script – than he is in making the men pay for their crimes.

If all this sounds suspiciously like Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ sitcom Porridge, which would hit BBC screens 14 years later, that’s because it's hard to believe that it wasn’t an influence on them, especially once new hard-as-nails warden Crout (Lionel Jeffries) – a perfect template for Fulton Mackay’s Porridge officer Mr MacKay – enters the scene.

The writers take their time introducing the plot in favour of first firmly establishing the characters. Dodger, who has the elevated status of ‘prison trustee’, is seen helping the governor give some local ladies (including the fabulous Beryl Reid) a tour of the museum, while getting up to high jinks on the way. Wordplay is also never far away. While there are the double entendre gags afforded by that giant marrow, there’s also a lot more subtle dual meanings, including a moment when Dodger notes that, “We take things as we find them”. Some of the language used, however, does as the old saying goes, “reflect the attitudes of the time”.

When the story does arrive, it’s a taut one. One of the inmates’ old mates Soapy Stevens (Wilfrid Hyde-White) poses as a vicar to get access to the jail, and outlines a jewel heist for which the lads will have the perfect alibi – so long as they can escape and return to the prison on a single night. The plan sounds simple enough until they discover their soft warden is being replaced by Crout, who rules his prisons with a rod of iron.

Jeffries just about steals the film out from under the nose of Sellers – something which reportedly put the Goon Show star’s nose out of joint to such a degree that he briefly left the set, leaving director Robert Day to muddle on – “I couldn’t believe it but kept on working, shooting around him as best I could” he once told an interviewer. On camera, however, the star is restrained. There are suggestions that this was to deliberately pull against Jeffries much bigger performance but, whatever the reason, it actually works perfectly, allowing Sellers to disappear more into his role than he sometimes does.

Once the prison break wheels are set in motion there’s also plenty of fun to be had from the subsidiary cast, which includes Irene Handl as Lennie’s overbearing mum and Liz Fraser as Dodger’s girlfriend Ethel – possibly the most unlikely name ever for a head-turner who uses her sexual wiles as a distraction. The excellent cast runs wide and deep, also including Thorley Walters, Warren Mitchell and Arthur Mullard. Beyond the scripted humour there are decent visual gags and the music from Ken Jones is also memorable. The sort of character-driven comedy we seem to have sadly lost the art for in recent decades.

Two Way Stretch & Heavens Above! are out on blu-ray now. In Character: The Films of Peter Sellers runs from 2-30 August at the BFI Southbank. A Box Set of Peter Sellers films will be available in November.

Reviewed on: 29 Jul 2025