Review of In the Nick

....posthumously which may make his more recent admirers reluctant to separate his stage and film career from the alarming allegations regarding his private life. As an actor/writer he was head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries, versatile,charismatic and, with Leslie Bricusse, a songwriter who might have been an English Sondheim if he hadn't had so many strings to his bow. "Stop the world - I want to get off!" was his masterpiece when he was at the height of his powers and vying to be Mr Showbusiness. He had songs in the charts,some romantic,some sardonic,and toured to packed theatres. But by the end of the sixties his sort of in your face show biz schtick was becoming a bit passe and lesser talents were being lionised. With "In the nick", we see him coming to his peak,cool,confident,amusing an attractive persona as a psychologist in a prison with a very liberal regime.Reforming criminals may have been a daring concept in 1960 but it is still very much on the agenda nearly 60 years later. "Two - way stretch","The pot carriers","The criminal" all date from around the same era when prisons were all dark forbidding places for keeping people locked up and giving the public a break from their depredations. Who knew or cared what happened to them when they came out? Well,this prison shrink did. The downside to all this liberality is that criminals tend to take a mile if given an inch(that's why they're called criminals - I guess). So a powerful con tries to run a gang from, inside the nick. For a much later spin on this see Dolph Lundgren's "The riot" - clearly there is nothing new under the sun. Some nicely familiar 60s faces do their accustomed stuff....what's not to like? Newley's movie C.V.is not over - long;"In the nick" gives us a chance to see him in happier times.