Film

The Ups and Downs of a Handyman

A 1976 British sex comedy following a naive handyman navigating a village full of sexually aggressive locals with increasingly absurd schemes. Cheerfully crude and plotless, it's pure slapstick innuendo—the kind of film that exists only to deliver punchlines about what people want from the tradesman. For fans of period smut who don't need narrative.

If you liked this

Confessions of a Window Cleaner1974

The spiritual predecessor to this film: a window cleaner stumbling through misadventures with randy housewives. Same era, same sensibility, same shameless commitment to double entendre and pratfalls.

But It's aggressively juvenile even by 1970s standards, and the 'humour' about women's sexuality hasn't aged with grace or self-awareness.

Confessions of a Window Cleaner poster

Are You Being Served?1972

A department store comedy with the same British seaside-postcard energy: innuendo, double meanings, and a cast of stock characters defined entirely by their sexual hang-ups and peculiarities.

But The TV format means tighter plotting and less chaos—more restrained, which some might find less fun than pure rowdy pandemonium.

Are You Being Served? poster

Carry On Camping1969

The gold standard of British smut-adjacent comedy: a huge cast, endless gags about bodies and desire, and absolutely zero interest in narrative coherence. Pure silly-ness with a wink.

But It's longer and more polished than this film, which might actually make it feel less raw. Also, Sid James fans will find him absent, changing the ensemble dynamic.

Carry On Camping poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Villanelle2012

The wildcard inversion: this film is pure mechanical sex-comedy surface, Villanelle is pure interior investigation of the same phenomenon. Same obsession, inverted completely in approach and register.

A deliberately obscure, DIY documentary essayist film about the persistence of seduction and desire in contemporary life. Completely opposite in register and intent from this 1976 farce—serious, meditative, visual poetry—but obsessed with the same subject: the way desire operates, the dance between people.

But It's experimental, slow, visually abstract, and demands active engagement. If you want plot and gags, this is a rebuke. If you're looking for fun, not provocation, skip it entirely.

Villanelle poster
More like this (6)

Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width1967

A sitcom about tailors in London's East End with the same energy: quick gags, cheerful vulgarity, a world of minor characters with big appetites and bigger mouths.

But It prioritizes character and dialogue over the visual slapstick that drives a film like this one; the rhythm is completely different.

Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width poster

Chikamatsu Monogatari1954

Two feckless Mancunians getting into romantic and sexual chaos across working-class England. Same era, same tone of affectionate mockery toward desire and incompetence.

But It's actually character-driven and touching in places, which might feel like it's taking itself seriously compared to pure farce.

Chikamatsu Monogatari poster

Bless This House1972

A sitcom spin-off about a family man constantly propositioned and pursued by various women. Same basic premise of the hapless male surrounded by female desire, same cheeky British comedy logic.

But It's built around a sitcom star (Sid James) with that warm likability that undercuts the sleaze. Less chaotic, more cosy.

Bless This House poster

Steptoe & Son1972

A rag-and-bone business comedy with the same sprawling village-of-oddballs cast dynamic and working-class irreverence. Proof that British comedy could be crude and clever simultaneously.

But It's far more character-driven and emotionally grounded; you might feel it's operating in a completely different register from this one.

Steptoe & Son poster

The Likely Lads1976

Two working-class Geordies navigating 1970s England: same era, same casual vulgarity, same episodic structure of encounters and disasters that don't add up to a plot.

But It's warmer and more sentimental about male friendship, which pulls it away from the pure chaos and impersonal sex comedy that drives this film.

The Likely Lads poster

Come Play with Me1977

A low-budget British sex farce with the same shameless exploitation angle, silly visual gags, and complete indifference to narrative structure or good taste.

But It's even cheaper and more disreputable than this one, which is only fun if you're actively looking for the bottom of the barrel.

Come Play with Me poster

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Confessions of a Pop Performer, Adventures of a Plumber's Mate