‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’: Coming of age in the swinging sixties
It’s easy to fall in love with an idealised image of the swinging sixties, one where trendy new clothes were worn by all, and everyone blasted The Beatles from their radios. Naturally, that’s an idea of 1960s Britain that only a few people actually lived through, although it’s one that was often captured on celluloid and immortalised as a deceptive time capsule—making us assume that life as a young person during the decade was much more fun and liberated than it was.
In Clive Donner’s sex comedy Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, we see Barry Evans’ lead character, Jamie, attempt to live out his swinging sixties fantasies, but he comes to learn that not everything is as enticing as it initially seems. Set in new town Stevenage, there are immediate class disparities between Jamie and some of the girls that he tries to get off with, although these themes certainly take a backseat in favour of sexual gags – after all, it is a sex comedy.
The film centres around Jamie’s desire to lose his virginity and get with the girl he fancies, Mary, played by Judy Geeson, but she isn’t interested in the lowly sixth former. Desperate to become a sex expert, he tries his best to get with various girls in his local area, often making himself look rather desperate and pathetic in his quest to ‘become a man’. It’s got all the jokes and stupidity of a quintessential British ‘60s/’70s comedy, loaded with innuendos and erotic moments certain to bring in a flock of audience members at every screening.
These days, the jokes and sexiness present in Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush are rather dated, but the film is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a character caught between the desire to join in with the glamour and excitement that the swinging sixties offered, and the reality of living in a small town, away from the action. Thus, Jamie makes the most of his situation, and he manages to flirt his way through the runtime, even if that means attending a cheesy church fete or having to help out in the local neighbourhood.
With gags like “sounds a bit too kinky for me!” when asked by one suitor if he’d like to “make it a foursome,” in reference to joining in with a game of tennis, many of the jokes border on Carry On territory, but that’s what makes it so stupidly enjoyable. Yet, the film is more than just a forgettable Carry On-esque movie; there are plenty of experimental visuals to be discovered, such as in one dream sequence where Jamie imagines a girl in her underwear and himself half-naked eating grapes, with a kaleidoscopic lens making the whole thing seem like a hallucinatory trip. The opening credits are also perfectly psychedelic; they couldn’t be more late-60s if they tried.
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush is an interesting film. It’s not amazing, yet there is something about it that is so compelling. Evans’ performance is charming, even if his character is too girl-crazy for his own good. Donner opens up a conversation about the reality of the swinging sixties, where not everyone, like Jamie, could keep up with the changes sweeping the nation. In one scene, Jamie witnesses one girl trying on a distinctively ‘60s outfit, a hat with cut-out holes sitting atop her head.
“The minute I walk out of here this lot will be old-fashioned,” Jamie comments, to which she replies, “That’s the fun of living today.”
The film has its fair share of flaws, but even though Jamie treats most of the girls as conquests, the women are all hilarious in their own ways, asserting themselves as more than just pretty faces that Jamie wants to sleep with. That doesn’t negate the fact that the films do sometimes present the women in a male-gazey light, but compared to many other sex comedies at the time, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush is much more focused on the shortcomings of its charmingly desperate protagonist.
