Dearden and Relph, both separately and together, regularly worked in a comic vein. As well as making numerous outright comedy films, the filmmakers brought a measure of humour to several of their action films, thrillers and dramas, titles like The League of Gentlemen (1960), Man in the Moon (1960), Masquerade (1965), Only When I Larf (1968) and The Assassination Bureau (1969). This was a common commercial approach within British cinema in the period and was, moreover, a distinctive aspect of the films they made together. Michael Relph consistently praised Basil Dearden's technical skill as a filmmaker, believing that this was nowhere more evident than in his handling of humorous material; he was, according to Relph, ‘very expert at directing comedy’ (Relph 1997: 246). Furthermore, this was acknowledged within the film community generally, demonstrated in the case of the successful producer-director team of Launder and Gilliat inviting Dearden to act as mentor to the novice director Robert Day on their production of the comedy The Green Man (1956). It is also significant that two of the three films directed by Relph, Rockets Galore! and Desert Mice, were comedies; while his own directorial debut, the tragic melodrama Davy (1956), featured much comic business.