“ANY sign of danger, and I’ll stroll by whistling the Lambeth Walk.”

There’s still time to catch Hue and Cry, possibly my favourite Ealing Comedy, on BBC iPlayer before it expires early tomorrow morning.

It’s a tale of working-class street kids who discover criminals are sending cryptic messages through children’s comic stories. Amid the ruins of post-war London, their initial scrapping and fisticuffs give way to a show of solidarity and collective discipline that would leave most revolutionaries envious.

The 1947 flick’s adult cast is led by Edinburgh’s own Alastair Sim, who plays the wonderfully pretentious author of the stories — who has no idea of their subversion until the kids track him down in a decadent mansion flat.

Harry Fowler plays Joe, the leader of the street urchins, opposite the talented Joan Dowling as Clarry, who won’t let anyone tell her adventure is a boys’ game. Fowler and Dowling went on to get married in 1951. Both secured acting parts as young adults, but tragically Dowling killed herself in 1954.

There’s an equally impressive performance from the Glaswegian Douglas Barr as Alec, a fearless younger lad who at one point shrugs: “Anyway, they can’t send me to borstal, I’m too young.”

Barr’s acting career didn’t take off. Until his recent death, he lived in sheltered housing in Long Buckby, Northants, where in May 2012 he hit the limelight again. Barr became the poster boy for a housing association scheme to get pensioners online, after he used a community event to seek out pictures of his childhood film roles.

“As a complete newcomer I really enjoyed the event,” he told the Daventry Express. “I had the immense pleasure of finding a photograph of myself aged 15 when I featured in the film.”