Take a Girl Like You

More Brit Lit on film. Actually the novel by Kingsley Amis was filmed in 1970 with Haley Mills as the delectable Jenny Bunn, but this is a more satisfactory 150 minute mini –series retelling of the story of how sweet schoolteacher Ms Bunn comes to middle England from the North, armed with nothing but her principles, including no sex before marriage, and handicapped by her extreme good looks. She is instantly targeted by the good-looking all round roue Patrick, a teacher in a public (ie exclusive private) school. She also has to fend off her landlord, a fellow boarder of lesbian leanings and sundry members of the country gentry.

Jenny, of course is not against sex, she just wants to wait for Mr Right. Patrick on the other hand is so used to mere lust that he doesn't recognise love when it comes along, especially in such a divine package as Miss Jenny. The story is played out at a leisurely pace against a background of green countryside, drives in open sports cars, country houses, cricket, incredibly smoky pubs and lots of grog, all permeated with the cool sound of jazz (not a rocker in sight).

As Jenny, Sienna Guillory is beautifully virginal and Rupert Greaves is charming (and very well preserved) as the dissolute Patrick. A host of minor characters make what would otherwise be a thin story into something more interesting. There's Julian (Hugh Bonneville), Patrick's landed gentry chum, with the jazz parties and the mistress in town, the awful Dick the landlord (Robert Daws) and his sneering wife (Emma Chambers), Patrick's high minded Scottish flatmate Graham (Ian Driver), whose efforts at seduction inevitably end in failure, Jenny's lesbian French room mate Anna who turns out not what she seems, the headmaster's daughter who at 18 is several laps ahead of Jenny in the sexual experiences stakes, a blackmailing parent (Jeff Rawle – the wonderful George in `Drop the Dead Donkey') desperate to get his dumb son a scholarship to Oxford, and an old Lord (Leslie Phillips) who insists on telling Patrick about his groping problem.

Anyway, it's a handsomely done production with everybody looking and sounding right. Once again we recommend you read the book. Amis was a fine writer with an flair for comedy and an eye for telling detail. The story is a slight one but the ambience very authentic – as Amis demonstrates the sexual mores of the swinging sixties were well on their way by 1959. Seeing it all up on screen I was struck by how far away it all seemed – I might as well have been watching `Pride and Prejudice' but then the scriptwriter Andrew Davies has done lots of Jane Austen. Ah, tempis fugit, as Patrick the classics master would have said. The end of the story, told by Patrick in a brief voice-over, is a sadly familiar tale.

And i dont say that often. They got the feel, the mood and the music of the period just right for this. Sienna guillory was a bit weak and too hard faced to play the northern ingenue role. But rupert graves, robert dawes and hugh bonneville more than made up for her. To be honest the innocent young school teacher role should have gone to castmate Amelia Warner. She had the pure and guileless beauty that you felt was needed for a character who unitentionally creates havoc amongst the men of the town.

A production that offers a (very) modest plot but is visually enjoyable, this TV film/mini-series is ultimately unsatisfying.

Those who wish to gain a sense of the sights and sounds of England in the 1950's will enjoy the sets, fashions, cars and cinematography - as will those who were there and wish to reminisce. However, the storyline and characterisations are in reality more representative of the time in which the film was made than the period in which it is set. The sexual mores, in particular, are anomalous. (Much the same can be said of the novel on which this production is based.)

I can't really recommend this film unless you gain particular enjoyment from pretty scenery and the visual portrayal of another age. The storyline is extremely slender - and ultimately uninteresting - whilst the characters are paper-thin (unintentional) parodies.

Still, the sets and scenery are very attractive (as is the female lead). So if you just want to relax and let it wash over you, and don't mind the tediuus and unexciting sexual content, you could give it a try on a lazy evening.

I wouldn't bother, though...

2.5 /10

Take a girl like you was a generally likeable programme. In terms of script, costume and creating a realistic impression of the period it was undisputed. However, the acting was on the whole quite atrocious. The only actor who really gave any life to his character was Simon Evans as Horse. Although not the biggest part, Simon Evans, in my opinion was unfortunate not to receive any kind of nomination for a BAFTA or other TV award. On the whole, I would give the programme 7 out of 10 and unfortunately not because ofthe acting but because of Simon Evans and the tremendous costume.

This BBC production directed by Nick Hurran sets out to make an updated version of the 1970 film of the same name, but adding more spicy bits, I refer to sexual content, so as to appease as many as possible in the updated public audience of today. However: the film is composed in a rather 60-ish style of romantic comedy, when, though it be a waste of time saying so, British comedy on radio and TV was absolutely at the peak of its magnificence. I refer to the late fifties and early sixties of the last century.

For those of us who were lucky enough to be born just after the end of World War Two, we came of age – or at least late adolescence and thus with enough intelligence – to enjoy the best of British humour in all its expressions. J.B. Priestley was busy in the theatre, as were Tom Stoppard and others; the radio delighted us with such exquisite entertainment as `It's That Man Again', `Take it From Here', `Hancock's Half Hour', `Round The Horne', `The Navy Lark', `Beyond Our Ken', `Steptoe and Son', `A Life of Bliss', and other entertainments such as `Just a Minute', closely followed by TV with humorous contributions of similar calibre, which I will not mention as tears of remorsefulness are filling my eyes.

Today British humour is vulgar, in bad taste: a reflection of the times in which we now live. All art – including humour, which is serious business – reflects the social conditions of the moment. Only `Mr. Bean' in recent years, perhaps, stands out a little from the rest of the banal triviality of today.

As if to prove my point, this version of 2000 for TV resuscitates Leslie Philips (contemporary of Sheila Hancock who takes part in the 1970 original version), one of the great stars of some of the shows mentioned above – especially `The Navy Lark' – and one of the stalwarts of hitherto refined wit.

It is as if Nick Hurran wanted to revive those unforgettable years which finally ended in bringing forth The Beatles (among others): he does not do a bad job of it. This film even includes a brief fragment from Luis Buñuel's `Un Chien Andalou' (1929).

But reminiscences go back: I can remember Hayley Mills (one year younger than I) doing what then seemed such wonderful things round Christmas Trees on deserted Islands somewhere in the South Pacific together with her father – John Mills – and in other Disney productions, and she seemed to me to be the most angelical thing to have ever `reeled' out of filming cameras, like a goddess from another world.

So those of you who can remember the 1970 film – forget it; this new production is a totally new film, but with some of that nostalgic looking back which at times is inevitable. For those of you who are younger – just sit back and enjoy: it has its pleasant moments and attempts a reconstruction of the late fifties rather well, including some beautiful cars. And a few visits to some genuine pubs. If you should come across any book by Kingsley Amis, enjoy those, too!