A Boy, a Girl and a Bike

Young couple Sue and Sam are members of a Yorkshire cycling club, the Wakeford Wheelers. Romantic complications ensue when wealthy David becomes smitten with Sue and joins the club to pursue her, much to Sam's dismay.

• John McCallum as David Howarth
• Honor Blackman as Susie Bates
• Patrick Holt as Sam Walters
• Diana Dors as Ada Foster
• Maurice Denham as Bill Martin
• Leslie Dwyer as Steve Hall
• Anthony Newley as Charlie Ritchie
• Megs Jenkins as Nan Ritchie
• John Blythe as Frank Martin
• Hal Osmond as Mr. Bates
• Thora Hird as Mrs. Bates
• Amy Veness as Grandma Bates
• Maggie Hanley as Ginger
• Cyril Chamberlain as Bert Gardner
• Barry Letts as Syd
• Vera Cook as Helen Gardner
• Julien Mitchell as Mr. Howarth
• Alison Leggatt as Mrs. Howarth
• Lyn Evans as Policeman in Cafe
• Margot Bourke as Mary Bates
• Geoffrey Best as Harry
• John Howlett as Alf Pearson
• Patrick Halstead as Willie
• Joan Seton as Beryl Howarth
• Dennis Peck as Norman Bates
• Vera Williams as Jill Bates
• Bernard Hepton as Cyclist
• Gerald Lawson as Dog Seller
• Barbara Murray
• Valerie Pearson as Cyclist
• Charles Saynor as Policeman
• Marianne Stone
• Ben Williams as New Houseowner

The film is based on an original idea by Sydney Box, who was head of production at Gainsborough. Box devised the idea while out for a Sunday drive and assigned the script to Ted Willis, who had worked for Box on the scripts for Holiday Camp and The Huggetts Abroad. Willis had a reputation as a skilled writer for working-class characters. The film was originally titled Wheels Within Wheels.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sY1LGFNtCOEC&q=%22boy+a+girl+and+a+bike%22+%22sydney+box&pg=PA92|first=Andrew|last=Spicer|title=Sydney Box|publisher=Manchester University Press|date= 2006|isbn=9780719059995}}Ted Willis, Evening All: 50 Years Over a Hot Typewriter (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 11, 23.

Richard Attenborough was meant to play a key role but was busy making The Guinea Pig, so Patrick Holt played his part instead.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228807720 |title=U.S. ACTOR'S FIRST FILM IS BRITISH |newspaper=The Sun |issue=11948 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 May 1948 |accessdate=11 July 2020 |page=17 (LATE FINAL EXTRA) |via=National Library of Australia}}

In March 1948, Smart scouted locations in Yorkshire{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228999880 |title=They'll spend summer outside -- if it's fine |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2345 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 March 1948 |accessdate=11 July 2020 |page=35 |via=National Library of Australia}} and filming took place in September 1948 at Lime Grove Studios as well as on location in Yorkshire at places including Wakefield, Hebden Bridge, Skipton and Malham Cove.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55897059 |title=McCALLUM BACK AFTER HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAY |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |volume=37 |issue=1,900 |location=South Australia |date=30 October 1948 |accessdate=11 July 2020 |page=3 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE) |via=National Library of Australia}}

Variety called the film "feeble ... valueless for the US market."[https://archive.org/details/variety174-1949-06/page/n19/mode/1up?q=%22boy+a+girl+and+a+bike%22 Review of film] at Variety

The Monthly Film Bulletin called it a "simple unpretentious story enlivened by flashes of homely Yorkshire humour."BOY A GIRL AND A BIKE

Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 16, Iss. 186, (June 30, 1949): 96.

Leslie Halliwell said: "Mild comedy drama with the advantage of fresh air locations."{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0586088946 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=135}}

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Homespun humour and romance, with a variety of accents from the Rank Charm School."{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |pages=195}}

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "A minor, good-natured British comedy romance ... The cosy enterprise demonstrates why, with certain superior exceptions, the public preferred American films."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=123}}

{{reflist}}

• Spicer, Andrew. Sydney Box. Manchester University Press, 2006.

• {{IMDb title|0041203}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170326052639/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a63ed4b A Boy a Girl and a Bike] at BFI
• [https://letterboxd.com/film/a-boy-a-girl-and-a-bike/ A Boy a Girl and a Bike] at Letterbox DVD

{{Ralph Smart}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy, a Girl and a Bike}}

Category:1949 films

Category:British romantic comedy-drama films

Category:Films set in Yorkshire

Category:Gainsborough Pictures films

Category:Islington Studios films

Category:Films shot in England

Category:Films directed by Ralph Smart

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:1940s romantic comedy-drama films

Category:Films with screenplays by Ted Willis, Baron Willis

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:1940s British films

Category:English-language romantic comedy-drama films