The Lovers!

Jack Rosenthal was one of the great tv writers of the 20th century.This however is a sad letdown.Even ignoring the very dated aspect of the film,there are few amusing moments and the film drags on interminably.This is the film spin off from a tv series,and it just doesn't work.After all if they had gone to bed with each other in the first reel there would be no story.The only plus is the fine performance of Richard Beckinsale

The Lovers 1973 Richard Beckinsale & Paula Wilcox. Young couples nervous and clumsy attempts in their quest for love. Lovely time piece from the early 70s with great shots of 70s Manchester and Old Trafford ( cricket & football) well worth watching. 7/10.

As a Mancunian nice to see a film using Manchester locations as opposed to the usual London ones. The story is a sweet tale of two unlikely lovers falling for each other. Excellent performances from a cast of reliable old hands, and a lot of youthful newcomers, who went on to bigger and better roles in big productions, all assembled with a fine signature tune by Tony Christie,a little gem indeed, and a feel good movie for persons of a certain age, highly recommended.

A British comedy; A story about a hesitant, inexperienced young couple negotiating the 'permissive' society. This film is a spin-off from a British sitcom, but it eschews the two television series as background to tell the story of unlikely lovebirds. It is set against a backdrop of greater sexual freedoms and independence in the early 1970s and has a theme about women growing in confidence, aspiring to true parity with men in their sexual and professional lives, and the complications of desire at the same time. Its setting in the North West of England lends a weightier frankness about a female in that region at that time-her likely prospects based on the working class norms-that the young and married often become marginalised because of the domination by the male once they become married, leading to motherhood at a relatively young age and possible domestic drudgery. It is a gauche comedy, entertaining thanks to actors Richard Beckinsale and Paula Wilcox, and innocent fun for the naive and clumsy interplay and playful courting. Wilcox combines being prude with a Northern tint of bourgeois snobbery, while Beckinsale is wonderfully vulnerable and helpless as he veers between laddism and romance nervously. The film isn't directed with much panache, and it is a slight story, but it has quaint dialogue.

The Lovers! is not a great film, or even a particularly good film. It will never win awards. It is typical of the low cost British TV-based movies of the 1970s. It is really nothing more than an expended TV special. But for some reason, I have retained a copy and, every so often (when I need cheering up usually) I play this film. It has a certain innocence. Nostalgia for a age that has past. Both the leading actors are excellent and there is a host of good supporting actors. The script is hardly hilarious but there are times when the one liners bring a smile. All in all, it is a pleasant way to spend 90 odd minutes.