# The Bed Sitting Room
**The Bed Sitting Room** is a 1969 British surreal comedy film directed by [Richard Lester](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-lester), set in London after a nuclear war and adapted from the stage play by [Spike Milligan](https://www.edgepedia.org/spike-milligan) and John Antrobus. It follows about twenty survivors who cling to pre-war routines while radiation gradually transforms some of them into animals and household objects, including one man who becomes the bed-sitting room of the title.[1](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bed-sitting_room_the) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) A box-office failure on release, it later gained a following as a forerunner of the absurdist style of [Monty Python](https://www.edgepedia.org/monty-python) and was restored to home video by the British Film Institute.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bed-sitting-room-1970) • [4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Richard Lester; screenplay by John Antrobus (with Charles Wood also credited) from the play by Antrobus and Spike Milligan[1](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bed-sitting_room_the) • [5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/) |
| Production | Oscar Lewenstein Productions for United Artists; filmed May to July 1968, mainly around Chobham Common[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29) |
| Running time / format | 91 minutes, color, aspect ratio 1.66:1[1](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bed-sitting_room_the) • [6](https://kinolorber.com/film/bedsittingroomthe) |
| Premise | After a nuclear war lasting 2 minutes 28 seconds, about 20 people remain alive in London; radiation mutates characters into a cupboard, a parrot, a sheepdog, and a bed-sitting room[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) |
| Principal cast | Ralph Richardson (Lord Fortnum of Alamein), Rita Tushingham (Penelope), Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Arthur Lowe, Mona Washbourne, Michael Hordern, Roy Kinnear, Marty Feldman[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) • [7](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/bed-sitting-room-the/) |
| Release | First shown at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival in July 1969; UK premiere 26 March 1970 at the CineCenta, Panton Street, London[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29) |
| Awards | C.I.D.A.L.C. Gandhi Award at Berlin 1969; nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear (Best Film)[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29) • [6](https://kinolorber.com/film/bedsittingroomthe) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
[World War III](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-war-iii) in the film is "the nuclear misunderstanding", described as the shortest war in history at 2 minutes and 28 seconds including the signing of the peace treaty. Three or four years later, London is almost totally destroyed and only about twenty people remain alive.[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/) The survivors carry on with their old roles in a country that no longer exists: one man on a bicycle generates electricity for the entire nation, a newsreader in half a dinner suit functions as the BBC, Mate (Spike Milligan) works for the whole of the [General Post Office](https://www.edgepedia.org/general-post-office), and a nurse is the entire [National Health Service](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-health-service).[5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/)
**Mutations.** [Radiation](https://www.edgepedia.org/radiation) poisoning causes several characters to change into something else during the film: a housewife into a cupboard, a policeman into a sheepdog, a prime minister into a parrot, and a member of Parliament into a bed-sitting room, which gives the film its title.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) Lord Fortnum of Alamein ([Ralph Richardson](https://www.edgepedia.org/ralph-richardson)) spends much of the film awaiting his own imminent transformation into a bed-sitting room, trying to reach [Belgravia](https://www.edgepedia.org/belgravia) before it happens.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room) • [7](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/bed-sitting-room-the/)
**The family.** A central thread follows the Frereton family, who have lived for years on a still-running automatic train on the Underground's Circle Line, surviving on chocolate bars. Their daughter Penelope ([Rita Tushingham](https://www.edgepedia.org/rita-tushingham)) has been pregnant for seventeen months, and her parents leave the safety of their underground carriage to find her a husband and reclaim their luggage.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room) • [5](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/) Meanwhile Mrs Ethel Shroake of 393A High Street, Leytonstone, the Queen's charwoman and now first in line to the throne, is crowned Queen.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room)
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction classifies the film as a post-Holocaust black comedy and fabulation in which dazed survivors practice traumatized denial, pretending nothing has happened even as they mutate. It notes that the film's settings show a realistic aftermath of atomic war, including the shattered dome of [St Paul's Cathedral](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-pauls-cathedral) protruding from a swamp and landscapes of sludge, discarded boots, broken plates, and false teeth.[1](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bed-sitting_room_the) [Characters](https://www.edgepedia.org/characters) avoid naming the war directly, calling it "this rude thing" or the "unfortunate incident", a device the academic Christopher Daley reads as a parody of British reserve and social conservatism.[9](https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/d23bd858cf5032d25def806230d050d8bcb3c3d6d0c96c5015008d80af462261/2774223/Christopher_DALEY.pdf)
## From stage to screen
The source play began as a one-act satirical post-apocalyptic piece by Milligan and Antrobus, first produced on 12 February 1962. It was expanded into a longer play performed at the Mermaid Theatre in January 1963 before transferring to the [Duke of York](https://www.edgepedia.org/duke-of-york)'s Theatre two months later, where it ran as a critical and commercial hit; one contemporary description called it "like Samuel Beckett, but with better jokes".[10](https://aba.org.uk/book/899462464) The play ran until 1964, toured regionally, and returned to the West End in 1967 before the 1969 film adaptation.[11](https://milliprint.coffeecup.com/spike%20bks%20pdfs/bedsittingroom.pdf) A 2009 Guardian review initially credited Milligan alone as writer; the paper printed a correction stating that the play and film were written by Milligan and John Antrobus together.[12](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/16/dvdreviews-comedy)
Richard Lester came to the project at the peak of his reputation after the Beatles films *A Hard Day's Night* (1964) and *Help!* (1965), and [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) gave him considerable freedom over his next project.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) Lester and screenwriter Charles Wood had been contracted to direct an original screenplay by [Joe Orton](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-orton) called *Up Against It*, and pivoted to *The Bed Sitting Room* after Orton was found bludgeoned to death during pre-production.[13](https://thebedlamfiles.com/film/the-bed-sitting-room/)
## Production and locations
The film was shot between May and July 1968, mainly in and around Chobham Common.[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29) When United Artists executives saw the finished film, they disliked it and shelved it for a year; it received its first release at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1969 and did not open in the UK until March 1970. It was the last film released by United Artists' foreign-film arm, Lopert Pictures, which folded in 1970.[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29)
**Filming locations** were documented in detail by the British Railway Movie Database and the location archive Reelstreets. The Underground scenes were filmed at Aldwych station using a train of 1962-built tube stock, with the cross passages and escalators shot at Knightsbridge station and the left-luggage office on the derelict platform 4 of Wood Lane station on the Central Line, closed since 1947.[14](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-bed-sitting-room/) Other locations included china clay pits near St Austell in Cornwall, a refuse dump at West Drayton, and Guilford Street in Bloomsbury standing in for Downing Street.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) • [7](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/bed-sitting-room-the/) Even the opening credits carry the film's absurdist streak: cast members are listed in order of height.[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29)
## Reception and legacy
The film was a box-office disaster. American critics were generally favorable, but audiences rejected it, and United Artists pulled it after a very short release.[15](https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/the-bootleg-files-the-bed-sitting-room/) The failure damaged Lester's career to the point that he did not direct another film until *The Three Musketeers*; sources date that comeback film to 1973[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room) or 1974.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bed-sitting-room-1970) Roger Ebert, reviewing it in 1976, wrote that the film "so uncannily predicts the style and manner of Python that we think for a moment we're watching television", and called it dotty, savage, acerbic, slapstick, and quintessentially British.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bed-sitting-room-1970) Russell Campbell in the *Monthly Film Bulletin* described it as amusing but failed surrealism with "scarcely a trace of story-line", while crediting many elements that construct "a devastating critique of 'civilised' society and its pathetic values".[16](https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/25230/4/kmf-TheBritishWarFilm2links.pdf)
**Later standing.** The BFI describes the film as part Goons, part Samuel Beckett, noting that its bleak outlook confused audiences and led to it falling out of circulation for decades.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room) The BFI released it on DVD and Blu-ray through its Flipside line, a strand dedicated to rescuing and restoring obscure British films, and the Guardian's review of that release called it "rightfully regarded as something of a missing link in UK comedy".[4](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29) • [12](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/16/dvdreviews-comedy) The film was never released in any American home entertainment format as of the 2005 Film Threat account.[15](https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/the-bootleg-files-the-bed-sitting-room/) Turner Classic Movies' retrospective essay concludes that it remains Lester's most challenging film, and notes that the failure made him a Hollywood pariah for five years before *The Three Musketeers* restored his reputation.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room)
## References
1. [Bed-Sitting Room, The, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bed-sitting_room_the)
2. [The Bed-Sitting Room, Jeff Stafford, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/87377/the-bed-sitting-room-the-bed-sitting-room)
3. [The Bed Sitting Room, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1976)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bed-sitting-room-1970)
4. [The Bed Sitting Room (film), The Goon Show Depository](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bed_Sitting_Room_%28film%29)
5. [The Bed Sitting Room, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_bed_sitting_room/)
6. [Bed Sitting Room, The, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/bedsittingroomthe)
7. [Bed Sitting Room, The, Reelstreets](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/bed-sitting-room-the/)
8. [The Bed Sitting Room (1969), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3ed73bda-7532-59de-9161-10e21a5b7736/the-bed-sitting-room)
9. [Christopher Daley, British Science Fiction and the Cold War, 1945–1969](https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/d23bd858cf5032d25def806230d050d8bcb3c3d6d0c96c5015008d80af462261/2774223/Christopher_DALEY.pdf)
10. [The Bedsitting Room, play edition, Peter Harrington / ABA](https://aba.org.uk/book/899462464)
11. [The Bedsitting Room, Milliprint bibliography of Spike Milligan's books](https://milliprint.coffeecup.com/spike%20bks%20pdfs/bedsittingroom.pdf)
12. [DVD review: The Bed Sitting Room, The Guardian (2009), with correction](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/16/dvdreviews-comedy)
13. [The Bed Sitting Room, The Bedlam Files](https://thebedlamfiles.com/film/the-bed-sitting-room/)
14. [The Bed Sitting Room, British Railway Movie Database](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-bed-sitting-room/)
15. [The Bootleg Files: The Bed Sitting Room, Film Threat (2005)](https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/the-bootleg-files-the-bed-sitting-room/)
16. [The British War Film, University of Pittsburgh dissertation quoting Monthly Film Bulletin](https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/25230/4/kmf-TheBritishWarFilm2links.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license