The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)

Director:

Richard Eyre

Writer:

Ian McEwan

Stars:

Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry, Rosemary Harris

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jonathan Pryce	...	James Penfield
Tim Curry	...	Jeremy Hancock
Rosemary Harris	...	Ann Barrington
Frank Finlay	...	Matthew Fox
Charlie Dore	...	Susan Barrington
David de Keyser	...	Gold
Nat Jackley	...	Mr. Penfield
Bill Paterson	...	Lecturer
William Maxwell	...	Journalist
Paul Jesson	...	Journalist
Andy Rashleigh	...	Journalist
Christopher Fulford	...	Young Journalist
David Lyon	...	Newsreader
Polly Abbott	...	Gold's Assistant
Peter Walmsley	...	Bob Tuckett

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

political convention | newsroom | conservative | reporter | speech | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1983 (UK)

Also Known As:

A Verdade dos Factos

Filming Locations:

Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goldcrest Films International, Greenpoint Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Part of the film, towards the end, is set at the Conservative Party annual conference in Brighton in 1982, and was actually filmed at that event. In one shot at the conference, Penfield is seen lighting a cigarette amongst a crowd of conference delegates, and just behind his right shoulder is John Major, who would later succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister.

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Connections

Referenced in The Killing Floor (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Gale Warning"
(uncredited)
Music by Ronald Hanmer
Bosworth Music Ltd

User Reviews

Coldly, faultlessly observed portrait of various very unpleasant bourgeois Thatcher-dominated Brits, involved in the life of the bleak central character, a morally bankrupt journalist.

This is a very cold, well observed multi-layered portrait of a bunch of vile people, all scrambling up and down the greasy pole in the politically bleak bourgeois homeland of Thatcher's Britain at the time of its Falklands War obsession. The central character, an empty, ambitious, morally bankrupt journalist (Jonathan Pryce) is impossible to like or even dislike - just like the film itself. It's like a doctor's accurate diagnosis: you may need to know, but you don't necessarily want to. The photography is beautiful.