Bill Douglas – the director – might have been born to tell this story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs; his own Scottish childhood had been something of a matyrdom to working class deprivation and poverty. I vaguely knew about these Tolpuddle Martyrs from school history: how 6 humble farm labourers in rural Dorset of the 1830′s had dared to [...]
Yet another Mike Leigh film i’m watching off YouTube. In the early days i’d come to his films expecting to be amused by how “awfully” comic his neurotic characters are. But this film didn’t make me laugh much. Made me feel sad and slightly depressed. It starts off promisingly. You’ve got Phil Davis as Cyril, [...]
Strictly speaking this isn’t a feature film but a play made for BBC 2. You’ve got “Mand” (Lesley Manville) as the newly married working class wife (with a fag on in that pic there) of Dick (Philip Davis) in his horrible cross-ply synthetic cardigan. They’ve just moved into their first house/home together in Canterbury. Next [...]
