Sixties domestic light comedies could be very intelligent without excluding weary viewers in search of good-natured diversion. The child-raising situation of this comedy is used to set up a genuine philosophical enquiry: Is it ever right to tell a lie? When the son has broken a plate and not told them (in scene one) the parents set this down as a principle, which then gets tested to its limits by various unforeseen circumstances.
The script isn't afraid to investigate and complicate this idea a bit. When the mother tells the children that its always worse to get caught out in a lie than it is to have told the truth that you've done something naughty, the eldest daughter asks, what happens if you never get caught out? Subsequent mishaps follow on from further distinctions: Is not telling somebody something the same as telling a lie? For how long can you put off not telling a loved one some awkward news before it becomes wrong to do so?
This makes the comedy sound overtly dialectical. It really isn't but it does have the great virtue of making it feel as though something is genuinely at stake, and is therefore funnier and more involving.
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