The Best Pair of Legs in the Business is a 1973 British comedy-drama film directed by Christopher Hodson starring Reg Varney, Diana Coupland and Lee Montague.^[1] A washed-up comic/female impersonator at a holiday camp is concerned about the future.^[2]

The film is a cinematic version of an episode of ITV Playhouse (Yorkshire Television) by the same writer and director and also starring Reg Varney, transmitted on 28 December 1968.^[3][4]

Sherry Sheridan's career is dying. He is tolerated rather than valued at the holiday camp. His wife Mary is having an affair with the outgoing camp manager who tries to persuade her to leave with him. Every time she is about to, something happens to prevent it.

Sherry's agent drops him. He drinks heavily. The only people who show him any form of affection are two girls who prefer him to two randy boys.

His estranged son Alan turns up in an attempt to heal relations. He invites his father to meet his fiancée and her parents including the father who is a vicar. Sherry attempts to puff himself up as a big shot entertainer who knows the Queen. Having disgraced himself, he goes back to the holiday camp alone.

The two jilted boys find Sherry peeping into the caravan window of the two girls, who are undressing. They throw him in the swimming pool where he protests that he cannot swim. He is rescued by his son. In a final reconciliation scene, the son explains that the critical comment about having the best legs in the business was actually a compliment after a friend protested that he was embarrassed by his own father's legs in a knobbly knees competition.

• Reg Varney – Sherry Sheridan
• Diana Coupland – Mary Sheridan
• Lee Montague – Charlie Green
• Jean Harvey – Emma Cooper
• David Lincoln – Ron
• George Sweeney – Dai
• Clare Sutcliffe – Glad
• Penny Spencer – Eunice
• Michael Hadley – Alan Sheridan
• Bill Dean – Bert
• Reginald Marsh – Fred
• Karen Kessey – May
• Johnny Briggs – Millet
• Geoffrey Chater – Rev. Thorn
• Clare Kelly – Mrs. Thorn
• Jane Seymour – Kim Thorn
• Jenny Thompson – Edna Pilbeam
• Claire Davenport – Eating Lady
• Claire Shenstone – 1st Chemist
• Jane Cardew – 2nd Chemist
• Preston Lockwood – 3rd Chemist

The film was shot at EMI-MGM Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, and on location in Hertfordshire and West Sussex. The holiday camp location was Riverside Caravan Centre in Bognor Regis.

A 7" single was issued to promote the film: "Best Pair Of Legs In The Business" b/w "Come On And Tickle My Fancy" (Columbia, DB 8977, 1973).^[5]

Marjorie Bilbow in CinemaTV Today said the film was: "too sombre for Reg Varney’s fans to accept if they come prepared for belly laughs. Audiences that are not misled may react more favourably".^[6] Matthew Kerry makes a similar observation in The Holiday and British Film: "The film not only includes a central character who is suffering from a crisis of identity, but the film itself (and its promotional material) also arguably communicate confusing messages about what kind of audience it is trying to reach."^[7]

Clyde Jeavons wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin, comparing Varney's role with that of Lawrence Olivier in John Osborne's The Entertainer: "The film's one redeeming feature is Reg Varney's there-but-for-the-grace-of-God performance in the role he created on television. The part is clearly tailor-made; and whether he is camping it up for the campers or fantasising about his mythical Royal Command appearance, he manages – wherever script and direction allow – to be both more moving and more convincing than even Olivier in the Osborne role".^[8] In ABC Film Review, Vincent Firth made a similar comparison: "I honestly felt that Varney’s Sherry was superior to Olivier’s Archie, and that I was witnessing the arrival of a great character actor who would seem to have a tremendous future in emotional and finely-balanced portrayals."^[9]

The film was released on DVD by Network in 2013, comprising the film in its original cinema format, the theatrical trailer, an image gallery and original promotional material. The original ITV Playhouse production was included as an extra in the 2012 Network DVD box set On the Buses – The Complete Omnibus Edition.^[10]