Film

Confessions of a Pop Performer

A 1975 British sex comedy following an opportunistic young man's misadventures in the pop music industry. Shamelessly bawdy, barely interested in plot, this is pure Seventies permissiveness—knockabout farce with loose women and looser morals. For viewers who appreciate the era's fearless vulgarity and don't mind laughing at something proudly stupid.

TMDb rating2.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy broad, cheeky British sex comedies from the 1970s, where the innuendo is relentless, the slapstick is rowdy and the humour is more mischievous than mean.

Skip it if you find the saucy double entendres and leering set pieces tiresome, since the film runs on one joke about sex and does little else with its ninety-one minutes.

What it asks of you: It asks you to keep up with a fast, episodic run of bawdy vignettes and to accept a lot of cheerful crudeness without expecting any real emotional depth or subtle characterisation.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Carry On Camping1969

The spiritual ancestor of this entire comedy tradition: British farce built on double entendre, slapstick, and an absolute refusal to take anything seriously. Same energy, earlier decade, even more quotable.

But The humour is relentlessly broad and the characterization paper-thin, which can feel exhausting if you're not in the right headspace for pure silly.

Carry On Camping poster

Are You Being Served?1972

A TV series that proves the Seventies British comedy formula could sustain a long run. Same fondness for innuendo, workplace chaos, and cheerful vulgarity, but with recurring characters you'll actually start to care about.

But The sexual jokes can feel repetitive across multiple episodes, and the laugh-track dating makes it feel period-specific in ways that don't always land.

Are You Being Served? poster

Adventures of a Private Eye1977

Another Robin Askwith romp in the same vein: a dimwit protagonist, a string of women, wilful stupidity played for laughs. If you like the star, this doubles down on exactly what he does best.

But It's essentially the same film with a different job title, so if Confessions didn't grab you, this won't convert you.

Adventures of a Private Eye poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Confessions of a Pop Performer

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Performance.1970

Both are films about music industry figures and sexual transgression, but Performance is serious about the danger, where Confessions treats it as cartoon fun.

A radical inversion: where Confessions is all surface and noise, this is hypnotic and strange. A rock star, a fugitive, an identity swap—erotic and disorienting, made by people interested in unease. Seventies rock cinema at its most ambitious.

But It's slow, cryptic, and deeply unsettling. There's no plot momentum, no jokes, and it actively resists pleasure in the way that Confessions chases it.

Performance. poster
More like this (7)

Confessions of a Driving Instructor1976

The sequel, with the same director and star. Asks the obvious question: what if the same character had a different job? Same formula, familiar cast, reliable laughs for those on this wavelength.

But Sequels rarely justify themselves, and this one doesn't; it's more of the same with diminishing returns.

Confessions of a Driving Instructor poster

Keep It Up, Jack!1974

A predecessor in the same cheeky-comedy strain, built on the same audience assumptions. British sex comedy at its most optimistic and unashamed, with plenty of wink-and-nudge charm.

But The plots are skeletal and the characterization is nonexistent; if you need story, look elsewhere.

Keep It Up, Jack! poster

The Benny Hill Show1969

The template for British television comedy of this era: rapid-fire gags, pantomime logic, and a man who can turn any scenario into a pretext for chasing women. If you like Confessions, you'll recognise the DNA.

But His comedy style has aged poorly in hindsight, and the humour can feel mean-spirited when watched today.

The Benny Hill Show poster

Seven Into Hell1968

An earlier British comedy that paved the way for the permissive Seventies. Less focused on sex than its successors, but you can see the cheeky spirit that would later dominate the genre.

But It's decidedly pre-permissive in places, which means it can feel tonally confused, and the comedy itself is more sentimental than cheeky.

Seven Into Hell poster

The Ups and Downs of a Handyman1976

Released the same year, another British sex comedy with the same audience in mind. Follows the formula: a hapless protagonist, an improbable job, a series of increasingly explicit encounters.

But It's interchangeable with half a dozen others from the period, which is precisely the problem: no identity, no reason to remember it.

The Ups and Downs of a Handyman poster

The Story of O1975

Both released in 1975 and both unafraid of sex onscreen, but one is art cinema treating the subject with gravity, the other is entertainment treating it as a punchline.

The same year, the same era's sexual frankness, but aimed at an entirely different audience. A sophisticated, painterly exploration of desire and submission—beautiful, strange, genuinely transgressive. Shows what Seventies eroticism could be at its most deliberate.

But It's slow, explicit without being titillating, and entirely concerned with psychology over plot. If you want comedy, this will frustrate you.

The Story of O poster

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Both are Seventies films obsessed with the music industry as a site of sex, ambition, and chaos—but Phantom builds something baroque and strange from the same raw material.

A rock-music comedy-horror hybrid that's genuinely inventive. Brian De Palma remakes The Phantom of the Opera as a glam-rock tragedy-farce, complete with songs, blood, and genuine style. Weird, campy, surprisingly moving.

But It's a genre mess that doesn't always cohere, and the tonal whiplash between horror and comedy can feel jarring rather than clever.

Phantom of the Paradise poster

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