Mousy Margaret and Foppish Syl are getting married. The big day is closing in and the wedding has to be sabotaged... but how and by whom?
Margaret (Lena Headly) has been talked into a marriage with a silly boy she met abroad but really she wants to be a nun. But the bride-to-be is so sullen and insipid that it's difficult to generate any sympathy for the situation she has walked into. David Threlfal, as the beau, looks and acts like Eric Idle, nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean? He plays an over-the-top momma's boy who really has no idea what's going on around him.
Despite the thespian firepower roped into this 1993 BBC teleplay, it struggles to gain any kind of momentum. The days before the wedding are dragged out and interspersed with half-imagined flashbacks to a fantasy life in Egypt. (I think so, anyway... it's difficult to be sure what's real and what isn't.) If you cut out all these unneeded dreamy sequences, then maybe you have a pretty good one- hour program.
But there are some bright spots...
Jeanne Moreau is perfectly cast as the worldly and free spirited 'Lili' who drinks too much and thinks everyone else should too. She plays the biggest part in this drama, including the punchline.
Thankfully, the normally annoying Julie Walters has been reigned in and fits well as the mother of the bride who is pushing for the wedding to go ahead. Joan Plowright looks unchallenged in her role as the groom's mother.
Maggie Steed plays my favorite character, although her part as the wise and helpful family retainer is small. You can imagine her muttering "It's really none of my business!" as she dusts off the family china, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling! Brilliant stuff!
Other names and faces are packed into the running time including an unrecognizable Roger Lloyd Pack who (in my opinion) is one of our greatest and under-respected British acting gems.)
A 20-year-old, Bermuda-born, Lena Headly looks scrumptious as the lead but isn't really given anything to do except look distant and enigmatic!
Pretty good fun if you fast-forward through the flashbacks!
Margaret (Lena Headly) has been talked into a marriage with a silly boy she met abroad but really she wants to be a nun. But the bride-to-be is so sullen and insipid that it's difficult to generate any sympathy for the situation she has walked into. David Threlfal, as the beau, looks and acts like Eric Idle, nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean? He plays an over-the-top momma's boy who really has no idea what's going on around him.
Despite the thespian firepower roped into this 1993 BBC teleplay, it struggles to gain any kind of momentum. The days before the wedding are dragged out and interspersed with half-imagined flashbacks to a fantasy life in Egypt. (I think so, anyway... it's difficult to be sure what's real and what isn't.) If you cut out all these unneeded dreamy sequences, then maybe you have a pretty good one- hour program.
But there are some bright spots...
Jeanne Moreau is perfectly cast as the worldly and free spirited 'Lili' who drinks too much and thinks everyone else should too. She plays the biggest part in this drama, including the punchline.
Thankfully, the normally annoying Julie Walters has been reigned in and fits well as the mother of the bride who is pushing for the wedding to go ahead. Joan Plowright looks unchallenged in her role as the groom's mother.
Maggie Steed plays my favorite character, although her part as the wise and helpful family retainer is small. You can imagine her muttering "It's really none of my business!" as she dusts off the family china, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling! Brilliant stuff!
Other names and faces are packed into the running time including an unrecognizable Roger Lloyd Pack who (in my opinion) is one of our greatest and under-respected British acting gems.)
A 20-year-old, Bermuda-born, Lena Headly looks scrumptious as the lead but isn't really given anything to do except look distant and enigmatic!
Pretty good fun if you fast-forward through the flashbacks!