Not Now, Comrade
1976 film by Ray Cooney
Not Now, Comrade is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Ray Cooney and Harold Snoad and starring Leslie Phillips, Windsor Davies, Don Estelle and Ian Lavender. It was shot at Elstree studios as the sequel to Not Now, Darling (1973), and was the second in an intended series of "Not Now" films, with Not Now, Prime Minister pencilled in as a follow-up. But box office returns for this film, unlike those of its predecessor, were disappointing. It was the only feature film directed by Snoad.
Plot
Russian ballet dancer Rudi Petrovyan wants to defect. Unable to reach the British embassy and pursued by the KGB, he hides out with, and falls for, stripper Barbara Wilcox. But Rudi's planned escape in the boot of a Triumph backfires when he climbs into the wrong car, and he ends up in the country home of unsuspecting naval Commander Rimmington.
Cast
Leslie Phillips as Commander Rimmington
Roy Kinnear as Hoskins
Windsor Davies as Constable Pulford
Don Estelle as Bobby Hargreaves
Michele Dotrice as Nancy Rimmington
Ray Cooney as Mr Laver
June Whitfield as Janet Rimmington
Carol Hawkins as Barbara Wilcox
Lewis Fiander as Rudi Petrovyan
Ian Lavender as Gerry Buss
Richard Marner as 1st Russian official
Michael Sharvell-Martin as 2nd Russian official
Stage origins
Cooney's 1964 play Chase Me, Comrade was based on the 1961 defection of Rudolf Nureyev. First appearing in 1964 at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, Cooney himself played Gerry Buss. The play became a Whitehall farce running for 765 performances between 1964 and 1966.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Not Now, Comrade” as 1976 film by Ray Cooney. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1976 film by Ray Cooney. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7062142. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1973, 1964 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Not Now, Comrade” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.