User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/There's No Business... (1994 film)

There's No Business... is a 1994 British partially improvised comedy film directed by Kevin Molony and produced by Claudia Lloyd for Prospect Pictures.

It stars Raw Sex (Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron) as Ken Bishop and his stepson Duane, and Lee Cornes as their musical agent Dickie Valentino, in their attempt to re-record a song from an album by Ken's old band. The track "The Nice Twelve" has been chosen as the jingle for a TV advert for 'Pinkies', a American brand of kitchen gloves made by Mort Clayton (Mac McDonald). Alexander Armstrong (Tim) and Sam Graham (Fergus) work for the fictional advertising agency Sprote and Sprote, who manage the 'Pinkies' account. Stephen Frost distributes advertising leaflets for Duane and Ken's gig.

The film takes its name from the 1954 film There's No Business Like Show Business which itself borrowed the 1946 song of the same name by Irving Berlin, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun.

Cast (in order of appearance)
Jools Holland (piano) and Gilson Lavis (drums) are uncredited members of the band. Costume design was by Penny McDonald (as Penny Beard)

Release
The film was released in 1994.

Locations
Interior locations in London include The Lord Clyde pub on Essex Road, Islington and the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park. Exterior shots include the Carlton Cinema, also on Essex Road; the Imperial War Museum; Lambeth Palace; and Lambeth North tube station.

Vehicles
At the start of the film Ken rides a Panther Model 100 600cc motorcycle with Duane (plus bongos and keyboard) in the sidecar. Dickie Valentino is erratically driven around in a Mark IV Ford Cortina by Johnny Blackpool. Ken travels on a Piccadilly line 1973 Underground train in original livery. During the final credits, Ken and Duane hop on a number 159 AEC Routemaster bus. The Routemaster's final scheduled journey was on the 159 route in December 2005.

Critical reception
The film has had very few critical reviews. It has no entry on Rotten Tomatoes. Andrew O'Neill opens a brief appreciation with the words "No one knows about this film, and that's a fucking tragedy." Rivron and Brint's film "includes pretty much every one of the under-appreciated acts from the first wave of alternative comedy." Brint wrote "music for pretty much every comedy show in the '80s and '90s, but here he is piss-funny as the understated keyboardist and bandleader Ken Bishop."