Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World is a 1973 British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 children's film

Children's film

A children's film is a film aimed for children as its audience. As opposed to a family film, no special effort is made to make the film attractive for other audiences. The film may or may not be about children. In Unshrinking the Kids: Children's Cinema and the Family Film which is a chapter in In...

 starring Jim Dale

Jim Dale

Jim Dale, MBE is an English actor, voice artist, singer and songwriter. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his many appearances in the Carry On series of films and in the US for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series, for which he received two Grammy Awards, and the ABC series Pushing...

, and directed by Joseph McGrath

Joseph McGrath (film director)

Joseph 'Apocalypse' McGrath , sometimes referred to as "'Apocalypse'" Joe McGrath or Croisette Meubles, is a Scottish film director and screenwriter best remembered for his two films, Casino Royale and The Magic Christian . McGrath frequently collaborated with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers...

. A large supporting cast of British movie stalwarts includes Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

, Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas , born Angela McDonagh, is an English actress.-Early life:She was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire...

, Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington was an English actor best remembered for his roles in The Army Game, the Carry On films and the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.-Early life:...

, Milo O'Shea

Milo O'Shea

-Early life:He was born and raised in Dublin and educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, along with his friend Donal Donnelly.He was discovered in the 1950s by Harry Dillon, who ran the "37 Theatre Club" on the top floor of his shop The Swiss Gem Company, 51 Lower O'Connell Street...

, Dinsdale Landen

Dinsdale Landen

Dinsdale James Landen was a British actor known mainly for his television appearances.Landen was born at Margate. He made his television debut in 1959 as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations and made his film debut in 1960, with a walk-on part in The League of Gentlemen...

 and Victor Spinetti

Victor Spinetti

Victor Spinetti is a Welsh comic actor.-Early life:Spinetti was born in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Wales of Welsh and Italian heritage from a grandfather who was said to have walked from Italy to Wales to work as a coal miner...

. Other notable crew include composer

Film score

A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

 Edwin Astley and cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

 Harry Waxman

Harry Waxman

Harry Waxman, B.S.C. was an English cinematographer.Born in London, Waxman won an award from the British Society of Cinematographers for Sapphire in 1959...

.

The story is about an Old English Sheepdog

Old English Sheepdog

The Old English Sheepdog is a large breed of dog which was developed in England from early herding types of dog. The Old English Sheepdog has very long fur covering the face and eyes...

 who accidentally drinks a liquid growth formula (a form of experimental fertilizer), and expands to gigantic proportions. Two criminals then steal Digby, and sell him to a circus. Digby, however, escapes by breaking his chains, and running at will across the countryside of the United Kingdom. The boy who owns Digby, as well as the scientist who worked on the growth formula, both realize that Digby is constantly increasing in size, and will soon cause massive damage unless something is done immediately. The scientist finds out he has created a chemical that might reverse the growth formula. The British military, however, is attempting to solve the problem of the oversized sheepdog in their own way: by use of bombs and artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

.

It was the third programme shown on Central Television

Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

, after its takeover from ATV

Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...

, and the second programme from TVS Television

Television South

Television South was the ITV franchise holder in the south and south east of England between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1992. The company operated under various names, initially as Television South plc and then following reorganisation in 1989 as TVS Entertainment plc, with its UK...

, after its takeover from Southern Television

Southern Television

Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...

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