''If You Go Down in the Woods Today'' is a British TV film comedy released in 1981, written, directed and starring

Eric Sykes Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...

, also featuring

Fulton Mackay William Fulton Beith Mackay (12 August 1922 – 6 June 1987) was a Scottish actor and playwright, best known for his role as prison officer Mr. Mackay in the 1970s television sitcom ''Porridge''. Early life Mackay was born in Paisley, Renfr ...

and

Roy Kinnear Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in films such as The Beatles' ''Help!'' (1965), Clapper in ''How I Won the War'' (1967) and Planchet in ''The Three Musketeers ...

amongst a cast of dozens. The film, produced by Thames TV, was described by Sykes as 'a comedy thriller, an Agatha Christie gone mad!'.

Plot

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

troop led by their scoutmaster (Sykes) is on a field trip to a seemingly-peaceful English woodland. However, the woods are actually teeming with strange characters, some of whom turn out to be disguised police officers and others criminals. The police are searching for £2,000,000 in stolen banknotes and hope that the criminals will lead them to them. The criminals, on the other hand, are aware that the police are looking for them and doing their best to avoid betraying the location of their stash. It later transpires that the money is just a smokescreen for a top-secret document that the gang's leader - actually a

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

officer - is trying to smuggle out of the country. Despite an escalation of security in which the police are eventually joined by the army, navy ''and'' air force, it is the scoutmaster's chaotic bungling that leads him to discover the money and flush out the ringleader. At the end it is revealed that the scoutmaster was in fact an undercover police officer and that his bungling was a ruse.

External links

* 1981 television films 1981 films 1981 comedy films Films directed by Eric Sykes 1980s English-language films 1980s British films British comedy television films {{UK-tv-film-stub