David Webb is a mild-mannered British planning engineer sent across the Atlantic by his firm to negotiate a deal, a task for which he feels hugely out of his depth.

However, a friendly barman, with the help of one of his special cocktails, convinces Webb that his personality changes during the hour when the clocks on the ship are stopped when it enters a new time zone in its progress west.

[7] The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Cornelius' little frolic is very much like the bubbles cascading around the opening title and credits – thin, transparent and bouncy.

"[8] Filmink argued "More was miscast in an Alec Guinness/Norman Wisdom type part, as a nerdy engineer who gets brave at certain times of the day – More is always so cheery and confident that the device of the “worm turning” doesn't work.

"[12] After Cornelius' death, a friend of his wrote how "intensely personal, of all this films", Next to No Time was to the writer-director, adding: "A man of acute introspection and self-examination, he identified himself closely with The Little Guy in the story ...

The character in the film, played by Kenneth More, is a planning engineer in a large factory who finds a difficulty in convincing his employers of his ability.