Friends & Crocodiles (TV 2005)

"Friends and Crocodiles" traces the changing relationship of maverick entrepreneur Paul Reynolds and his assistant Lizzie Thomas over a period of 20 years from the beginnings of the Thatcher era to the bursting of the dot.com bubble.

Director:

Stephen Poliakoff

Writer:

Stephen Poliakoff

Stars:

Damian Lewis, Jodhi May, Robert Lindsay

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Damian Lewis	...	Paul Reynolds
Jodhi May	...	Lizzie Thomas
Robert Lindsay	...	William Sneath
Patrick Malahide	...	Anders
Eddie Marsan	...	Butterworth
Allan Corduner	...	Marcus
Chris Larkin	...	Redfern
John Warnaby	...	Coyle
Paul Hickey	...	Albert Brother
Tim Plester	...	Albert Junior
Isabel Brook	...	Angela
Sophie Hunter	...	Christine
Sasha Hardway	...	Young Rachel
Shannon Murray	...	Older Rachel
Harry Melling	...	Young Oliver

Storyline

"Friends and Crocodiles" traces the relationship of maverick entrepreneur Paul Reynolds and his colleague Lizzie Thomas over a period of 20 years from the beginning of the Thatcher years to the rise of the electronic age and the dot-com bubble. Paul persuades Lizzie to work for him as his personal assistant, and becomes her mentor. She is inspired by his drive and creativity, but appalled by his lack of organisation and occasionally destructive anarchic lifestyle. After she calls the police to terminate an extravagant party which has got out of hand, they part, vowing never to meet again, but, over the years, their paths continually cross, as Lizzie rises through the corporate world and Paul's fortunes rise and fall. The play is an examination of the nature of personal relationships where work and ideas are more powerful drivers than sexual emotions, and also a panoramic view of the rapid changes in British society in the '80's and '90's.

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Plot Keywords:

crocodile | secretary | entrepreneur | mentor | businesswoman | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 February 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Stephen Poliakoff Project

Filming Locations:

Broughton Castle, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£4,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Fremantle Media, TalkBack Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title refers to a baby crocodile that main character Paul owns. Paul says he thinks something can be learned from crocodiles because they survived the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

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Quotes

William Sneath: Paul collects people that interest him - and then lets them do whatever they want. And now he's collected you.
Lizzie Thomas: No. I'm just the secretary. That is quite different.

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Connections

Followed by Gideon's Daughter (2005)

User Reviews

Not what was expected

The lavish scenes and multitude of props gave the impression that this would be a first class production but I felt that there was very little story or plot taking place. The main characters took up so much of the time that it was hard to remember who all the other characters were. Perhaps twice we were shown what time period we were in but there were many occasions when I simply didn't know how much further in time the story had moved. If the main leads had aged it might have helped.

And where did all those children come from in such a short space of time? What happened to all of Paul's money? What was the purpose of the character who could answer any question (when he clearly couldn't)? Most of the acting was of a high standard but at the end I was left with "So what?"