Egghead's Robot (1970, UK)

A British children's adventure, now something of a period piece. Egghead Wentworth and his sister Elspeth have made a robot, pretty much identical to a real human being. The robot, called Eric, is played by Jeffrey Chegwin, and Egghead is Keith Chegwin, and Elspeth is played by Kathryn Dawe.

The programming hasn't quite been perfected but the robot works pretty well. When the cricket team is a player short, Egghead is asked to fill the gap, but everyone knows he is a pretty poor cricketer. But if Eric played instead ...

In fact Eric is an excellent fielder, but the ruse will be exposed if Egghead can't get home from the cricket ground changing rooms; so his sister Elspeth gets hold of the only clothes that she can find -- her long dress and her mother's wig.

But the robot is no good at running, so when Eric's turn to bat comes along, he is useless. Eric makes some adjustments, and Eric has to be got back to the cricket field. Unfortunately in making the adjustments, some components were left out by mistake and the robot's mode of walking is a bit strange.

I don't think there were many park keepers left by 1970, but they lived on in the memory of middle-aged story writers; so Roy Kinnear has been the thorn in the kids' sides throughout the film; here he accidentally knocks Egghead over -- a scene that might attract adverse remarks nowadays.

The story is pretty basic children's television stuff, but it's interesting to see a way of life long disappeared. Patricia Routledge, then 41, is the mother, and Richard Wattis, 58 is the father.

HF May 2007

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