An Englishman Abroad

I saw this when it fist appeared on tv, and fell in love with it. An absolute delight, but sad at the same time. After many years I stumbled upon in on VHS, so can now watch it whenever I choose. Well worth watching! Browne and Bates are stunning.

I watch it every time it comes on TV. Alan Bates is perfect and the fact that Coral Brown plays her younger self is so perceptive - she's an old woman in the play - does she play herself exactly as she was - if so she was old before her time. Russia looks so grey - it makes London look bright and bustling. And the final scene makes the whole thing worth it.

One of the best films I have seen, which considering its television origins is saying something. The acting is superb, the atmosphere so rich and distinctive you can smell and taste it, even if you were never in drab, old Moscow. Typical of Alan Bennett, the action is all compressed into small spaces and the dialogue is within the context of small surroundings, whether it be the physical confines of the flat, or changing rooms, or in the spiritual confines of gossip and ideology.

The times when the characters are out in the open are the times of liberation, and comparative quiet. It is then that the character of Moscow comes out, and this is all the more striking as the character is so strong, and yet is played by 2 pretenders: the cities of Dundee and Inverness. The theatre is played by the Caird Hall, Dundee, the slightly oddly designed long hall, described by Bob Hope as the first time he ever played a tunnel, and beautifully transformed into the utterly realistic central theatre of Cold War Moscow. There are also Russian performances by the Grammar School, Clydesdale Bank, and, most lovely, the MacManus Gallery, which plays the British Embassy. There are other scenes, which were filmed in Inverness, although I did once read that Helsinki may have been used for some long shots. Not being a real film buff, I wouldn't know.

The film isn't about spies, politics, wars, cold or otherwise, but about humanity, and what drives and excites us. It has humour, great sadness, and the most amazing sense of being both a delightful confection, and a most genuine and unselfconscious tale of reality.

British made drama based on a true story of a chance meeting in Moscow in the early 60's between an english actress and a british double agent and soviet spy. Coral Browne was part of a cultural exchange tour in 1961 between Great Britain and the Soviet Union touring and giving performances as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. One night following a performance in a Moscow theatre she is approached by a familiar looking gentleman. The man turns out to be the traitor and double agent Guy Burgess now residing permanently in the USSR. Oddly they strike up a friendship and he offers her the hospitality of his small apartment as well as an insiders view of being an honoured if not trusted but permanent houseguest living in a totalitarian state. It is the height of the cold war and even he is followed and surveilled upon. Life it seems is not all bread and roses in the utopian state and Burgess confides in her an aching home sickness for his homeland and even the simplest pleasures of english life. He particularly bemoans the unavailability of certain luxury items and being a dapper young man in his Cambridge days is at a loss even to find a really good suit behind the entire iron curtain. Coral touched by his predicament offers to help. Enough said.

The collusion of director John Schlesinger and writer Alan Bennett have produced an exceptional drama which won a few BAFTA awards following its release in 1993. The performances are highlighted by Alan Bates sad self deprecating portrayal as Guy Burgess and some effortless acting by Coral Browne who plays herself with aplomb. A bit like John Malkovich playing John Malkovich but with an interesting edge. The story also gives us some interesting vignettes into soviet life. When they find their hotel bath is minus a plug, Coral and a fellow actor in fun complain loudly to the hidden microphones. Five minutes later to their amazement the concierge knocks on their door with a...you guessed it. In the end the drama offers its own conclusion on betrayal and those who practise it. As Coral a loyal englishwoman herself accurately summed up to Burgess with whom she sympathised to some extent. "You p***ed in our soup....and we drank it". In other words whatever my personal friendship for you some sins are unforgiveable. This is the life you have unwittingly chosen for yourself. Enjoy...

Very dry wit joins with a rueful sadness in the 1 hour based-on-truth drama of English traitor in exile Guy Burgess (the wonderful Alan Bates) striking up a brief friendship with actress Coral Browne (playing herself).

Burgess meets Browne when goes to see a cultural exchange production of Hamlet, in 1958, wanders backstage, and throws up in her dressing room sink. In the midst the two find a connection, and strike up an acquaintance.

Full of trenchant observations on both Soviet and British life,, what it means to miss one's homeland, Perhaps the comic absurdity of the two dolts who work at the British embassy is a bit overstated, but generally this is full of beautifully observed moments, a quiet, gentle triumph.