She's Been Away

Like many "civilised" nations, we used to institutionalise people for all manner of reasons, including left-handedness and impetuous behaviour. Lillian, played brilliantly by Peggy Ashcroft, falls into the latter category. This film is the story of her return to civilisation.

Geraldine James is excellent as the (possibly equally impetuous) wife of the nephew (a priggish James Fox) who takes Lillian on. A child actor unknown to me, Jackson Kyle, makes an unforgettable cameo as the son, possibly the most pompous little git ever. A young Rebecca Pidgeon plays Young Lillian in the flashbacks.

It has Poliakoff written all over it - out of character impetuous behaviour is one of his trademarks. I am a fan of Poliakoff's and this is one of his best pieces for TV. Indeed, this is TV film drama at its very, very best. Highly recommended.

This early BBC feature film written by Stephen Poliakoff has re-emerged this evening after 34 years of being forgotten, and it is a mind-blower. The film is so brilliantly written, the screenplay is like a combination of Sophocles and Aristophanes, since the unspeakable tragedies portrayed are also mixed with sardonic humour, most of it black and weighted with satire. What an overwhelming mixture! And it works. It was directed by Sir Peter Hall with impeccable flair and the performances are all outstanding. Geraldine James's performance as Harriet Ambrose is so fantastic that it is what I call a ten-Oscars performance. We have all seen Geraldine James is countless things, but I think this role was her absolute triumph. Young Jackson Kyle is amazing as her son, Dominic. James Fox is excellent as her husband. And the central star is the amazing Peggy Ashcroft, whose last film it was. The story is overwhelmingly tragic, as Peggy Ashcroft plays Aunt Lillian who has been locked away in an asylum for 60 years but has to be taken out because the asylum is being knocked down by property developers. Her nephew, James Fox, loaded with fellow-feeling and good intentions, takes her into his home, despite the fact that she barely speaks and does strange and unpredictable things. We get flashbacks of what had happened to her when she was young, where she is played passionately by the wonderful Rebecca Pidgeon. What ensues is so complex that it defies any attempt at summary. Whether anyone will be able to see this film again is unknown. I have a DVD box set of Poliakoff's early films, but it is not included. It has never been released and maybe never will be. The showing of the film on BBC-4 was preceded by Poliakoff speaking for ten minutes about the film's genesis and production. The script was violently hated by everyone at the BBC, who did not want it to be filmed. The BBC seems to have done its best to suppress it afterwards. But the film was shown in 1989 at the Venice Film Festival where it won many awards, and frankly it deserves to be smothered in retrospective awards of every conceivable kind. Of all the outstanding films written by Poliakoff, it is ironical that this early and forgotten work, cast into the outer darkness by the BBC for three and a half decades, may be the best work of a lifetime of magnificent achievements. It would be unfair for any future viewers (if there are any) to tell what happens as the story progresses. But it gets more and more involved and unexpected. And the latter part of the film is where we find the most fantastic performance by Geraldine James, which is historic and a real milestone in the history of acting. I despair to think that this film will possibly never be seen again. Aunt Lillian was locked up for 60 years, and the film was locked up for 34 years. That is nothing less than a crime against humanity.

This was Peggy Ashcroft's last performance as LIllian Huckle, a woman who was institutionalized because she was considered to wild and rambunctious for 1920's English standards. Basically she was boy crazy and non-conforming.

She would stay in the institution her entire life, then be released and sent to her nephew to live with. Now an old woman who had never lived, she finds all she can do is sit and stare.

Whether it was intended or not, the movie shifts all focus on Ashcroft to Geraldine James, who plays Harriet Ambrose, the wife of the nephew. She is pregnant and visibly showing. She feels unappreciated by her husband and her precocious firstborn son.

The moment we realize that something is amiss is when this expectant mother is balancing on a chair throwing things out of the loft at the top of the stairs. Lillian, sitting at the bottom of the stairs, looks in disbelief as do we.

From there, Harriet takes herself and Lillian on the lam. Nothing is stopping Harriet, not her husband, her pregnancy or Lillian. She wrecks the car, catches her dress in the door and rips it, then hitchhikes even further.

Credit cards are hurled into the hotel's heating system. Harriet gorges on sliced beef and ham at the party that night. Finally, she confides in the slowly re-appearing LIllian that she is unhappy with her life and wants to live. She is rushed to the hospital with the pregnancy and Lillian, now deciding she has emerged once more, barricades the hospital door to keep Harriet's husband and the doctors away from her new ally.

Very well done program, especially check out the early scene when Harriet goes grocery shopping with Lillian and Lillian, not knowing what to do, buys a dozen frozen ducks. Guess what the special was at the next party the Ambrose's had?

Released a few months after Rain Man. This BBC film that had a cinema release and won several awards at the Venice Film Festival was dubbed Rain Woman.

Lillian Huckle (Peggy Ashcroft) has been locked up in an institute for 60 years. Now the psychiatric institute is closing down and Lillian in under the care of her nephew Hugh Ambrose (James Fox) who works in the city.

Hugh is wealthy enough take care of an elderly aunt he does not even know, he also does not regard it as a burden. For his wife Harriet (Geraldine James) it is a different matter altogether. She is pregnant with a second child and unhappy.

Harriet also thinks that there is more to Lillian who is basically institutionalised. Flashbacks show young Lillian who is in love with one of the twin brothers who increasingly became difficult and opinionated. Hence why she was taken away.

Writer Stephen Poliakoff revisited children who suffer from psychiatric trauma in The Lost Prince.

Like Rain Man, it becomes a bit of a road movie. Harriet takes Lillian to a hotel where they bond a little. Both were or are carefree spirits who felt hemmed in. Lillian comes out a bit from her shell when Harriet feels unwell.

Directed by Peter Hall, this is a small scale drama but I did feel Poliakoff's writing lacked polish here. Maybe the script needed a few more drafts. This was Peggy Ashcroft's last role.

Peggy Ashcroft shines in this, I believe it was her last role before she died in 1991 from a stroke.

Her performances in anything other than stage are rare and are to be treasured.

She is utterly believable here as a woman who has been incarcerated in a mental institution for 60 years for the crime of just being a wild young woman in her time and deemed unmanageable by her family.

She and the wife (played by Geraldine James who also appeared with Peggy Ashcroft in the "Jewel in the Crown") of her grand-nephew form an uneasy alliance in the household which is controlled by both the afore-mentioned husband and their young son who gives one of the most chilling child performances ever captured on film.

How the two women escape together from the strictures of their lives forms the bulk of the story. A haunting film.

8 out of 10.