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brelliott18
Reviews
BBC2 Playhouse: Grown-Ups (1980)
Mike Leigh's greatest and most under-rated comedy
The working class / chav equivalent of ' Abigail's Party ' and is even funnier.
I cannot understand why this has not been made available on DVD in UK format or video. It is one of the greatest comedies you will ever see. It is over 30 years since I last saw it with some friends and when I now rarely see them [ I have moved some distance ] we always remark that it has not been repeated or released on DVD.
The plot revolves around Dick and his girlfriend and her awful sister who is constantly visiting them much to Dick's annoyance. One of these character's ex-teachers lives next door with his frustrated wife. The husband is only interested in dinosaurs and the play revolves around their relationships.
Private Schulz (1981)
Outstanding !
A fabulous cast, plot and hilarious script. Richardson is superb as an incompetent placed in a position of power. His acting is just supreme. Elphinck is cast as the intelligent one who is always thwarted by fate or Richardson. Richardson plays a Nazi Major and suggests to Hitler [ from an idea of Elphinck's ] that they flood Britain with forged five pound notes. Elphinck is instructed to produce the forgeries with concentration camp / slave labour. He is parachuted into England but finds that his contact [ Played by Richardson again ] has been turned by British Intelligence. He manages to escape back to France. He is always trying to have romantic encounters in which fate always has the last laugh. His main love is Billie Whitelaw who works in a brothel designed to extract military gossip and traitors by eavesdropping [ Salon Kitty style ].
Elphinck tries on many occasions to get his hand on the money but, finally fails but ends up with Whitelaw [ after the war is over ].
I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD - are the BBC mad ???
The Last Englishman (1995)
Excellent
I loved this production - a true story of a true eccentric British hero. From the beginning we have a character who comes round in hospital after being blown up by a German shell and first asks about his horse. He berates another soldier in the ward, tells him to pull himself together and get his haircut. He then attempts to escape disguised as a nurse. During the German invasion of France he is so annoyed that the British are abandoning the French that he attempts to steal a plane to fly to France. He then becomes an agent in Vichy France after being parachuted in. After the war he fights a long battle against the legal profession who he considers to have swindled his sister. A magnificent production.