The Ploughman's Lunch: Difference between revisions

The Ploughman's Lunch
The Ploughman's Lunch
	First edition cover; (published screenplay)
Directed by	Richard Eyre
Written by	Ian McEwan
Produced by	Simon Relph; Ann Scott
Starring	Jonathan Pryce; Tim Curry; Charlie Dore; Rosemary Harris; Frank Finlay
Cinematography	Clive Tickner
Edited by	David Martin
Music by	Dominic Muldowney
Production; company	Goldcrest Films
Distributed by	Virgin Films
Release date	May 1983 (United Kingdom);
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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The Ploughman's Lunch is a 1983 British drama film written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, starring Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry and Rosemary Harris.

The film examines the mass media in Margaret Thatcher's Britain around the time of the Falklands War. It was part of Channel 4's Film on Four strand, enjoying a critically lauded theatrical release before the television screenings.^[1]

Plot

James Penfield is an ambitious London-based BBC radio reporter, from humble origins but Oxford-educated. He is commissioned to write a book on the Suez Crisis, claiming not to be a socialist; at that time, the Falklands War is dominating the British media.

He is attracted to Susan Barrington, a snobbish upper-class TV journalist, to whom he is introduced by his Oxford friend Jeremy Hancock, a fellow TV journalist. Although James is persistent, he cannot get further than a late night kiss from her and so Jeremy suggests that he contact her mother, the prominent left-wing historian Ann Barrington, who lives in Norfolk and is married to the advertising film director Matthew Fox. After learning that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary, James hopes to seduce the daughter by befriending the mother.

Now claiming in Ann's company to be a socialist, James soon finds himself spending more time with her than with her daughter; they have several long discussions and take long walks on the Norfolk Broads. Meanwhile, James' mother is dying and, James having earlier said to Susan that his parents were dead in order to disguise his origins, he is forced to identify her only as a relative when his father contacts him while he is with Ann. Returning to London, he is forced to ask for help from members of a women's peace camp after suffering a puncture. Initially mistaken for another BBC man, he shows some feigned sympathy towards the group protesting against the use of force outside a Norfolk airbase. Visiting Norfolk again a week later with an uninterested Susan, James walks alone with Ann, who kisses him and later has sex with him.

James returns to his work in London. Over a ploughman's lunch and beer with Matthew Fox, Fox consents to James making love to his wife, since the two have slept in separate beds for the last three years. James refuses to take calls from Ann when she attempts to contact him at the BBC. He finally has another Oxford friend, an up-and-coming young poet, call her to end the relationship, while he sits idly by reading advertisements in Exchange and Mart.

James, Jeremy and Susan travel to Brighton together in James' Jaguar to cover the 1982 Conservative Party Conference. At the start of the conference, James begins to suspect that the other two are romantically involved, and asks Jeremy if he is up to something. Later, during the conference, he attempts to talk to Susan but she brushes him off; he then sees her and Jeremy caressing each other, having returned from a hotel room. The conference finishes with Thatcher's closing address as she rouses popular support following the Falklands War, and afterwards James confronts Jeremy in the Brighton Centre conference hall, rebuking him for having betrayed him; Jeremy tells him that he has known Susan for fifteen years and that they are "old allies".

James has a conversation with his publisher about the success of his book. He then attends his mother's funeral, standing grim-faced and aloof at his father's side, as he impatiently checks his watch.

Cast

Jonathan Pryce as James Penfield
Tim Curry as Jeremy Hancock
Charlie Dore as Susan Barrington
Rosemary Harris as Ann Barrington
Frank Finlay as Matthew Fox
David de Keyser as Gold
Bill Paterson as Lecturer
Nat Jackley as Mr. Penfield
David Lyon as Newsreader
Orlando Wells as Tom Fox

Reception

In The New York Times, Vincent Canby praised the film: "James Penfield, the journalist who glowers at the center of the fine new English film The Ploughman's Lunch, is a fascinating variation on all of the angry, low-born young men who populated British novels and plays in the late 1950s and 60s. Although he denies it, he is angry. At one point he says: 'You do everything right and you feel nothing. Either way.' His problem is that he feels everything all too acutely, but it doesn't make him a better person, only more devious. James Penfield is Jimmy Porter of Look Back in Anger updated to the 1980s, specifically to London during the 1982 Falkland war and the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Ploughman's Lunch, the first theatrical film to be written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, is a witty, bitter tale of duplicity and opportunism in both private and public life...This is tricky stuff, but The Ploughman's Lunch blends fact with fiction with astonishing success."^[1]

Box office

Goldcrest Films invested £398,000 in the movie and received £271,000, a loss £127,000.^[2]

The film was seen by 1.7 million people on UK television.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b Canby, Vincent (19 October 1984). "'The Ploughman's Lunch', An Exercise in Duplicity". The New York Times.
- McCrum, Robert (23 January 2002). "The Story of His Life". The Observer.
^ Eberts, Jake; Illott, Terry (1990). My indecision is final. Faber and Faber. p. 657. ISBN 9780571148882 – via Internet Archive.

External links

McCrum, Robert (23 January 2005). "Review: The story of his life". The Observer.
The Ploughman's Lunch at IMDb
The Ploughman's Lunch at the BFI's Screenonline

[Canby-1] Canby, Vincent (19 October 1984). "'The Ploughman's Lunch', An Exercise in Duplicity". The New York Times.
- McCrum, Robert (23 January 2002). "The Story of His Life". The Observer.

[2] Eberts, Jake; Illott, Terry (1990). My indecision is final. Faber and Faber. p. 657. ISBN 9780571148882 – via Internet Archive.

[1]

[2]

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 }}
+'''''The Ploughman's Lunch''''' is a 1983 British [[drama film]] written by [[Ian McEwan]] and directed by [[Richard Eyre]], starring [[Jonathan Pryce]], [[Tim Curry]] and [[Rosemary Harris]].
+The film examines the mass media in [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s Britain around the time of the [[Falklands War]]. It was part of [[Channel 4]]'s ''Film on Four'' strand, enjoying a critically lauded theatrical release before the television screenings.<ref name="Canby">{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=19 October 1984 |title='The Ploughman's Lunch', An Exercise in Duplicity |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/movies/movies-the-ploughman-s-lunch-an-exercise-in-duplicity.html |work=The New York Times}}<br />- {{cite news |last=McCrum |first=Robert |author-link=Robert McCrum |date=23 January 2002 |title=The Story of His Life |work=The Observer}}</ref>
-'''''The Ploughman's Lunch''''' is a 1983 British [[drama film]] written by [[Ian McEwan]] and directed by [[Richard Eyre]] which features [[Jonathan Pryce]], [[Tim Curry]], and [[Rosemary Harris]].
-The film looks at the media world in [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s Britain around the time of the [[Falklands War]]. It was part of [[Channel 4]]'s ''Film on Four'' strand, enjoying a critically lauded theatrical release<ref>[[Vincent Canby]], "'The Ploughman's Lunch,' An Exercise in Duplicity," ''The New York Times,'' 19 October 1984.</ref><ref>[[Robert McCrum]], "The Story of His Life," ''The Guardian'', 23 January 2002.</ref> prior to the television screenings.
 == Plot ==
-James Penfield ([[Jonathan Pryce]]) is an ambitious London-based BBC radio reporter, from humble origins but [[Oxford University|Oxford]]-educated. He is commissioned to write a book on the [[Suez Crisis]], claiming not to be a socialist, at the time as the 1982 [[Falklands War]] is dominating the British media.
+James Penfield is an ambitious London-based [[BBC]] radio reporter, from humble origins but [[Oxford University|Oxford]]-educated. He is commissioned to write a book on the [[Suez Crisis]], claiming not to be a socialist; at that time, the [[Falklands War]] is dominating the British media.
-He is attracted to Susan Barrington ([[Charlie Dore]]), an upper class, rather snobbish TV journalist, to whom he is introduced by his Oxford friend and fellow TV journalist, Jeremy Hancock ([[Tim Curry]]). Although he is persistent, he cannot get further than a late night kiss from her and so Jeremy suggests that he contact her mother, prominent left-wing historian Ann Barrington ([[Rosemary Harris]]), who lives in Norfolk and is married to advertising film director Matthew Fox ([[Frank Finlay]]). It transpires that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary and James wants to seduce the daughter by befriending the mother.
+He is attracted to Susan Barrington, a snobbish upper-class TV journalist, to whom he is introduced by his Oxford friend Jeremy Hancock, a fellow TV journalist. Although James is persistent, he cannot get further than a late night kiss from her and so Jeremy suggests that he contact her mother, the prominent left-wing historian Ann Barrington, who lives in [[Norfolk]] and is married to the advertising film director Matthew Fox. After learning that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary, James hopes to seduce the daughter by befriending the mother.
-Claiming to be a socialist, James soon finds himself spending more time with the mother than her daughter; they have several long discussions and also take long walks on the [[Norfolk Broads]]. Meanwhile, his mother is dying and, having earlier said to Susan that his parents are dead in order to disguise his origins, he is forced to identify her only as a relative when his father contacts him while he is with Ann. Returning to London, he is forced to ask for help from members of a women's peace camp after suffering a puncture. Initially mistaken for another BBC man, he shows some feigned sympathy towards the group protesting against the use of force outside a Norfolk airbase. Visiting Norfolk again a week later with an uninterested Susan, James walks alone with Ann Barrington who kisses him and later enters his bedroom and has sex with him.
+Now claiming in Ann's company to be a socialist, James soon finds himself spending more time with her than with her daughter; they have several long discussions and take long walks on the [[The Broads|Norfolk Broads]]. Meanwhile, James' mother is dying and, James having earlier said to Susan that his parents were dead in order to disguise his origins, he is forced to identify her only as a relative when his father contacts him while he is with Ann. Returning to London, he is forced to ask for help from members of a women's peace camp after suffering a puncture. Initially mistaken for another BBC man, he shows some feigned sympathy towards the group protesting against the use of force outside a Norfolk airbase. Visiting Norfolk again a week later with an uninterested Susan, James walks alone with Ann, who kisses him and later has sex with him.
-Caught up in this love triangle, James returns to his work in London. Over a beer and pub [[ploughman's lunch]] with Matthew Fox, Fox consents to James making love to his wife, given that they have slept in separate beds for the last three years. James refuses to take calls from the mother when she attempts to contact him at the [[BBC]]. He finally gets another Oxford friend and up and coming young poet to make a call to her ending the relationship, while he sits idly by reading advertisements in ''[[Newsquest|Exchange and Mart]]''.
+James returns to his work in London. Over a [[ploughman's lunch]] and beer with Matthew Fox, Fox consents to James making love to his wife, since the two have slept in separate beds for the last three years. James refuses to take calls from Ann when she attempts to contact him at the BBC. He finally has another Oxford friend, an up-and-coming young poet, call her to end the relationship, while he sits idly by reading advertisements in ''[[Newsquest|Exchange and Mart]]''.
-James, Jeremy and Susan cover the 1982 [[Conservative Party (UK) Conference|Conservative Party Conference]] and travel down to Brighton together in James' [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]]. It is at the start of the conference that James first starts to get an inkling of something going on between the other two and directly asks Jeremy if he is up to something. Later, during the conference, he attempts to talk to Susan but she brushes him off and he then sees them caressing each other, having obviously returned from a hotel room. The Conference finishes with Thatcher's closing address as she rouses popular support following the Falklands War and afterwards James confronts his friend in the [[Brighton Centre]] conference hall, calling him a shit for having betrayed him; he in turn is told by Jeremy that he has known Susan for fifteen years and that they are 'old allies'.
+James, Jeremy and Susan travel to [[Brighton]] together in James' [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]] to cover the 1982 [[Conservative Party Conference]]. At the start of the conference, James begins to suspect that the other two are romantically involved, and asks Jeremy if he is up to something. Later, during the conference, he attempts to talk to Susan but she brushes him off; he then sees her and Jeremy caressing each other, having returned from a hotel room. The conference finishes with Thatcher's closing address as she rouses popular support following the Falklands War, and afterwards James confronts Jeremy in the [[Brighton Centre]] conference hall, rebuking him for having betrayed him; Jeremy tells him that he has known Susan for fifteen years and that they are "old allies".
-The film ends with James having a conversation with his publisher about the success of his first book. The closing scene is of James attending his mother's funeral, standing grim-faced and aloof at his father's side, as he impatiently checks his watch.
+James has a conversation with his publisher about the success of his book. He then attends his mother's funeral, standing grim-faced and aloof at his father's side, as he impatiently checks his watch.
 == Cast ==
@@ Line 48: / Line 47: @@
 *[[David de Keyser]] as Gold
 *[[Bill Paterson (actor)|Bill Paterson]] as Lecturer
-*[[Nat Jackley]] as Mr Penfield
+*[[Nat Jackley]] as Mr. Penfield
 *[[David Lyon (actor)|David Lyon]] as Newsreader
 *[[Orlando Wells]] as Tom Fox
 ==Reception==
-In ''[[The New York Times]]'', film critic [[Vincent Canby]] wrote: "James Penfield, the journalist who glowers at the center of the fine new English film ''The Ploughman's Lunch'', is a fascinating variation on all of the angry, low-born young men who populated British novels and plays in the late 1950s and 60s. Although he denies it, he is angry. At one point he says: 'You do everything right and you feel nothing. Either way.' His problem is that he feels everything all too acutely, but it doesn't make him a better person, only more devious. James Penfield is Jimmy Porter of ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' updated to the 1980s, specifically to London during the 1982 Falkland war and the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. ''The Ploughman's Lunch'', the first theatrical film to be written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, is a witty, bitter tale of duplicity and opportunism in both private and public life...This is tricky stuff, but ''The Ploughman's Lunch'' blends fact with fiction with astonishing success."<ref>[[Vincent Canby]], "'The Ploughman's Lunch,' An Exercise in Duplicity," ''The New York Times,'' 19 October 1984.</ref>
+In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Vincent Canby]] praised the film: "James Penfield, the journalist who glowers at the center of the fine new English film ''The Ploughman's Lunch'', is a fascinating variation on all of the [[Kitchen sink realism|angry, low-born young men]] who populated British novels and plays in the late 1950s and 60s. Although he denies it, he is angry. At one point he says: 'You do everything right and you feel nothing. Either way.' His problem is that he feels everything all too acutely, but it doesn't make him a better person, only more devious. James Penfield is Jimmy Porter of ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' updated to the 1980s, specifically to London during the 1982 Falkland war and the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. ''The Ploughman's Lunch'', the first theatrical film to be written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, is a witty, bitter tale of duplicity and opportunism in both private and public life...This is tricky stuff, but ''The Ploughman's Lunch'' blends fact with fiction with astonishing success."<ref name="Canby" />
 ===Box office===
-[[Goldcrest Films]] invested £398,000 in the movie and received £271,000 causing them to lose £127,000.<ref>{{Cite book|title=My indecision is final|url=https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber|url-access=registration|first1=Jake|last1= Eberts |first2=Terry|last2=Illott|year=1990 |publisher=Faber and Faber|page=[https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber/page/657 657]}}</ref>
+[[Goldcrest Films]] invested £398,000 in the movie and received £271,000, a loss £127,000.<ref>{{Cite book |title=My indecision is final |url=https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber |url-access=registration |first1=Jake |last1= Eberts |first2=Terry |last2=Illott |year=1990 |publisher=Faber and Faber|page=[https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber/page/657 657] |isbn=9780571148882 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
-The film was seen by 1.7 million people on English television.{{cn|date=January 2021}}
+The film was seen by 1.7 million people on UK television.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
 ==References==
@@ Line 64: / Line 63: @@
 ==External links==
+* {{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/23/fiction.ianmcewan |first=Robert |last=McCrum |title=Review: The story of his life |work=The Observer |date=23 January 2005}}
-* [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E0DF1439F93AA25753C1A962948260 Vincent Canby on ''The Ploughman's Lunch'' in ''The New York Times'']
+* {{IMDb title|id=0086122|title=The Ploughman's Lunch}}
-* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/23/fiction.ianmcewan Robert McCrum on Ian McEwan—"The Story of his Life"—in ''The Guardian'']
+* {{Screenonline title|539903}}
-*{{imdb title|id=0086122|title=The Ploughman's Lunch}}
-*{{Screenonline title|539903}}
 {{Richard Eyre}}
@@ Line 74: / Line 72: @@
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ploughmans Lunch, The}}
+[[Category:1983 drama films]]
 [[Category:1983 films]]
-[[Category:1983 drama films]]
+[[Category:1983 independent films]]
+[[Category:1980s British films]]
+[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
 [[Category:British drama films]]
-[[Category:English-language films]]
+[[Category:British independent films]]
+[[Category:Films about Margaret Thatcher]]
+[[Category:Falklands War films]]
+[[Category:Films about the mass media in the United Kingdom]]
+[[Category:Films directed by Richard Eyre]]
 [[Category:Films set in Norfolk]]
+[[Category:Films with screenplays by Ian McEwan]]
 [[Category:Goldcrest Films films]]
-[[Category:British independent films]]
+[[Category:Methuen Publishing books]]
-[[Category:British films]]
+[[Category:Suez Crisis fiction]]
-[[Category:Films with screenplays by Ian McEwan]]
+[[Category:Films scored by Dominic Muldowney]]
-[[Category:Films directed by Richard Eyre]]
+[[Category:English-language drama films]]
-[[Category:1983 independent films]]
+[[Category:English-language independent films]]

v t e Works by Ian McEwan
Novels	The Cement Garden (1978) The Comfort of Strangers (1981) The Child in Time (1987) The Innocent (1990) Black Dogs (1992) Enduring Love (1997) Amsterdam (1998) Atonement (2001) Saturday (2005) On Chesil Beach (2007) Solar (2010) Sweet Tooth (2012) The Children Act (2014) Nutshell (2016) Machines Like Me (2019) The Cockroach (2019) Lessons (2022)
Story collections	First Love, Last Rites (1975) In Between the Sheets (1978)
Children's novels	Rose Blanche (1985) The Daydreamer (1994)
Television plays	Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration (1976) The Imitation Game (1980) Solid Geometry (2002)
Screenplays	The Ploughman's Lunch (1983) Soursweet (1988) The Good Son (1993) The Innocent (1993) On Chesil Beach (2017) The Children Act (2017)