On Christmas Day the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run will be on everyone’s TV screens as the 1953 Henry Cornelius comedy Genevieve is shown at lunchtime on BBC2. Starring John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall Genevieve ranks as one of the all time great films.
For anyone who travels the congested roads of Britain these days the utterly delightful Genevieve will provoke a wistful, nostalgic sigh of regret for times gone by when there were no motorways, traffic jams were almost non-existent and friendly police motorcyclists riding classic Nortons.
Henry Cornelius’ gentle comedy is pleasingly old-fashioned, concerned as it is with the antics of two obsessive enthusiasts on the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. The principal quartet could hardly be bettered: John Gregson as Genevieve’s proud owner, the radiant warmth of Dinah Sheridan as his long-suffering wife, Kenneth More is ideally cast in the role of boastful rival enthusiast and Kay Kendall has possibly the best comic moment of all when she astonishes everyone with her drunken trumpet playing.
The Christmas Edition of the Radio Times says –
GENEVIEVE (4 Stars) “Few tales are as essentially British as this good natured round of confrontations and calamaties that befall John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall during the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. The performances are a joy and the soundtrack by Larry Adler unforgettable. In short, watch!”
The four wheeled star of the film is still going strong, with ‘Genevieve’, now owned by the Louwman Collection in the Netherlands, completing the 110th anniversary LBVCR on the 5th November with Quirina Louwman at the wheel.