Stanley Windrush, Ian Carmichael, begins his journey in a rather unusual setting, the Sunnyglades Nudist Camp, where his father tries to steer him toward a corporate career. He launches into two hopeful interviews that set the tone for his precarious path into industry. The first interview is for the Detto company, which manufactures washing detergent; Windrush makes a strikingly poor impression and fails to land the job. A second chance comes with an interview at Num-Yum, a factory that produces processed cakes. The cakes taste good, but the production process turns disturbing, and an overabundance of samples leaves Windrush sick in a large mixing bowl, again ending in a rejection. After ten days and eleven interviews, the recruitment agent simply declares that Windrush isn’t cut out for industry.
Windrush’s trajectory takes a sharp turn when his uncle Bertram Tracepurcel, Dennis Price, and his old army comrade Sidney DeVere Cox, Richard Attenborough, urge him to take an unskilled blue-collar position at Tracepurcel’s missile factory, Missiles Ltd. At the outset, Windrush is viewed with suspicion as an eager newcomer by the shop floor, particularly by the communist shop steward Fred Kite, Peter Sellers. Kite wants Windrush fired for lacking a union card, but after a period of work-to-rule, Kite warms to him and even offers to take him in as a lodger. When Kite’s daughter Cynthia, Liz Fraser, visits, Windrush accepts her company with an ease that briefly smooths the rough edges of the arrangement.
Meanwhile, the personnel manager, Major Hitchcock, encounters a time-and-motion study expert named Waters, John Le Mesurier, who is tasked with measuring employee efficiency. The workers resist cooperation, but Waters manipulates Windrush into demonstrating how much more quickly he can operate his forklift truck than his more seasoned colleagues. Upon learning the result, Kite calls a strike to defend the wages his union is paid, a scheme that Cox, Tracepurcel, and Mr Mohammed, the Middle Eastern contract’s representative, intend to leverage. Their plan is to win a lucrative deal that could be inflated by roughly £100,000, a sum they would split three ways, presenting it as a legitimate expense to justify a faster, costlier contract.
As tensions rise, the union decides to punish Windrush by “sending him to Coventry.” The Kite household also gains an unexpected visitor when Windrush’s wealthy aunt Dolly visits, adding another layer of complexity to the family dynamics. The story then widens to a nationwide crisis as Cox arrives at Union Jack Foundries to find workers mounting a sympathy strike. The press cover the supposed punishment of Windrush for his diligence, and Windrush’s choice to cross the picket line and return to work—while exposing his ties to the factory’s owner—sparks harsh reactions. Cynthia and her mother respond by going on strike, and more labor disruptions ripple outward, bringing the country to a near-standstill.
With the situation spiraling, Tracepurcel has no choice but to dispatch Hitchcock to negotiate with Kite. The attempted settlement leaves Windrush at the center of blame from both sides, forcing him to face consequences that neither camp anticipated. Cox then attempts a bribe to push Windrush out, offering a bag of money to resign, a temptation Windrush refuses. The confrontation moves to a televised debate, a program called Argument hosted by Malcolm Muggeridge, where Windrush publicly exposes the hidden motives driving all involved. When Windrush tosses the bribe money into the air, the studio audience erupts in riotous chaos.
In the aftermath, Windrush is accused of causing a disturbance and is bound over to keep the peace for twelve months. The film closes with a return to the nudist setting, where Windrush sits with his father, the mood lighter but the irony not lost: the final scene finds him naked once more, this time under very different circumstances. The story unfolds with a careful balance of satire and social commentary, illustrating how collective action, corporate ambition, and personal loyalties collide in a country at a crossroads. In the end, Windrush’s moral ambiguity remains, leaving viewers to reflect on the true cost of progress and the fragile nature of trust in times of upheaval.
