The book is a great read although somewhat confusing for those not familar with Spike Milligan's sense of humour or logic and the film manages to stay largely faithful to the original plot with much of Spike's original dialogue evident. It's also testament to Spike's sense of humour and style of writing that the film could be created almost 40 years after publication of the book and still remain fresh.

The literary characters are brought convincingly to life by an impressive cast and the locations are similarly recreated and filmed in such a way to be faithful to the original. Richard Attenborough, as the narator, is the only weak link in my opinion and its a great shame that Spike himself didn't live to perform this part as his inimitable delivery would have provided the perfect finish.

In addition, I'm not sure how well the film would be received by those not familar with the book. Spike's observational style of writing dwells much on detailed descriptions, many of which have been attempted to be included within the film and can lead to some confusion in context of the overall plot. However, there are some classic moments with many one liners lifted straight from Spike's original narative.

For those not familar with the book, Puckoon can be a baffling film to watch. But for Spike Milligan fans this is a must-have item and my final rating is easily raised another star. There are a number of key ommissions with the Chinese policeman not appearing but these can be forgiven when you consider how difficult the task must have been to transfer the original into a running narative.

The film is well made and acted and there's a generous selection of extras that includes a 'making of' documentary and an interview with Milo O'Shea along with the usual items of audio commentary, stills gallery and trailers etc.

Fans of Spike Milligan should buy this now.

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