A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)

Upon its release, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square aimed to be British heist film with a modern sheen (there is a scene in an early branch of McDonalds where the serving staff has an American accent) but it comes across as a passable but humdrum movie with a lot of familiar faces and some light comedy.

A slightly portly Richard Jordan (Pinky) plays a recently released ex-convict, an ace in fixing anything electrical whose parole officer has improbably got him a job in a high security bank.

Pinky working in such a place does not go unnoticed. David Niven (Ivan) is the suave but ruthless criminal mastermind who wants to break into the vaults and persuades him to help his gang.

Pinky resists as he wants to go straight but later wilts. Pinky does not trust Ivan to give him his fair share of the loot so has a back up plan with his best friend Oliver Tobias (Foxy) to help him out.

After the robbery Richard Johnson (Inspector Watford) discovers that Pinky's jacket had the combination numbers for the safe and puts pressure on him to cough up names.

The film has a lot of location shooting of late 1970s London, many of the female stars are there for eye candy such as Elke Sommer. Jordan is a likable lead, Niven is suave but he never convinced me as being menacing and of course you realise he was ill at the time this film was shot as he was suffering from Motor Neuron Disease which progressively got worse.