The Young Visiters (2003) (TV)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

David Yates

Writers:

Daisy Ashford (story)
Patrick Barlow (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 December 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy

Plot:

Alfred Salteena is a slightly bumbling gentleman who meets a young lady on a train and invites her to his home in London...

Plot Keywords:

Intentionally Misspelled Title | 1910s

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Jim Broadbent	...	Alfred Salteena
Hugh Laurie	...	Lord Bernard Clark
Lyndsey Marshal	...	Ethel Monticue
Bill Nighy	...	Earl of Clincham
Geoffrey Palmer	...	Minnit
Simon Russell Beale	...	Prince of Wales
Adam Godley	...	Procurio
Sophie Thompson	...	Bessie Topp
Sally Hawkins	...	Rosalind
Richenda Carey	...	Lady Gay Finchling
Anne Reid	...	Mrs. Monticue
Tom Burke	...	Horace
Richard Beale	...	Middle Aged Man
James Warrior	...	Station Master
Guy Henry	...	Mr. Domonic

Runtime:

UK:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Bluebell Railway, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

BBC Drama Group

Trivia:

Based on the novel "The Young Visiters (or Mr Salteena's Plan)", published in Britain in 1919 and written by Daisy Ashford who was only 8 years old at the time.

Quotes:

Lord Bernard Clark: Oh, tell me you love me also, Ethel!
Ethel Monticue: I do love you also, Bernard. I love you madly. I love you with passion. You are to me like a heathen god, with your manly form and your handsome, flashing face.

An absurd delight

I came to this sideways from the original novella, which was an absolute hoot. The film was a wonderful adaptation, pulling dialog directly from little Daisy's masterwork and adding to it in the same flavor. At once absurd and moving, it's the slightly wobbly story of an ordinary man who aspires to a higher station and the pretty girl desperate to hobnob among the nobility herself. They embark together, yet separately, and manage to achieve most of their ambitions, but not quite all they'd hoped. The characters are vivid and portrayed by top talent in Jim Broadbent, Lyndsey Marshal, Hugh Laurie, and Bill Nighy. They're all a bit dim-witted and bombastic, but you really feel for their ineptness. It's Broadbent's show—altho he has to fight off Nighy at times as the drunken, roguish earl. Simultaneously insightful (princes are ordinary people too) and oblivious (Ethel spends an awful lot of time alone with men she barely knows), The Young Visiters is both children's literature for adults and adult literature for children.