Documentary

Who Sold You This, Then?

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A BAFTA award nominated, light-hearted, documentary looking at the part the service engineer can play in making or destroying his company's reputation.

Release Date : 1972-01-01

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Video Arts

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Jonathan Lynn

Character Name :

Original Name : Jonathan Lynn

Gender : Male

Madge Ryan

Character Name :

Original Name : Madge Ryan

Gender : Female

John Cleese

Character Name :

Original Name : John Cleese

Gender : Male

Bernard McKenna

Character Name :

Original Name : Bernard McKenna

Gender : Male

Reviews

C

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2025-06-07

Think of this an an LP. On one side we have “Charlie” (John Cleese) as the repairman travelling the length and breadth of the city fixing things that have gone wrong. For a week or two he tries to stay loyal to his product, but after a while realises this is only causing him a world of pain with the now disgruntled customers so he starts to blame the salesman, or the kit itself, or head office for it’s endless cost-cutting and efficiency drives. Indeed, by the end of his visit it’s highly unlikely that the buyer would ever take a free gift from his employers again much less actually pay for anything new. Now flip the record over and this time Cleese is the owner of a record player that has gone bust. A repair man arrives with an altogether different attitude. This fella (Jonathan Lynn) takes a more responsible approach that’s based as much on reminding the customer that he’s had good use from this gadget for years and instead of it being cheap and cheerful it’s indeed a fine bit of equipment that a modest amount of restoration work will fix immediately. In one scenario, the customer leaves narked and unsatisfied with the company, in the latter an whole alternative approach leads to one who might just think of buying new stuff before the engineer has even left the house! Accentuate the positive, as they say! This is quite good fun with a less domineering effort from Cleese as he takes part engagingly and delivers some of the traditional head-scratching one-liners quite convincingly. Essentially, it’s about attitude though, and suggests none too subtly that if you approach something with a glass half empty attitude, then nobody will leave the encounter happily. Even now, fifty-odd years later, that message still has some miles on the clock.