Nuts in May 

A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh (deviser)

Stars:

Roger Sloman, Alison Steadman, Anthony O'Donnell

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Roger Sloman	...	Keith Pratt
Alison Steadman	...	Candice Marie
Anthony O'Donnell	...	Ray
Sheila Kelley	...	Honky
Stephen Bill	...	Finger
Richenda Carey	...	Miss Beale
Eric Allan	...	Quarryman
Matthew Guinness	...	Farmer
Sally Watts	...	Farm Girl
Richard Ireson	...	Policeman

Storyline

Their Morris packed to the gills, the punctilious Keith and the more spontaneous Candice-Marie arrive at a Dorset campground where they pay £10 in advance for ten nights. It's peaceful: they visit Corfe Castle, eat vegetarian food, and go in search of raw milk. Then a fellow with a loud radio pitches his tent near theirs: Keith is beside himself and it doesn't help when Candice-Marie decides to befriend the young man. Things get worse when a couple arrive on a motorcycle, make noisy love in their tent, and then start an illegal campfire. It's too much for Keith: he loses it. Will our middle-class couple find a bucolic corner, or are they doomed to brawl with the noisy and unwashed?

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Plot Keywords:

transistor radio | couple | tent | dorset | love | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 January 1976 (UK)

Filming Locations:

Corfe Castle, Dorset, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The registration number of the Morris Minor has the letters "BY". Really used by the Croydon vehicle registration office in the days before regionalisation.

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Quotes

Finger: Look, I've paid my money, you got no right to come telling me what to do!
Keith: Oh, I've got every right. I have the power to arrest you if I wanted to, now stop making that fire.
Finger: Are you a copper?
Keith: No, but every citizen has the right to arrest another citizen who's breaking the law. Now, be told.
Finger: What law am I breaking?
Keith: You're breaking the laws of the campsite and the laws of the country code.

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Connections

Featured in The Greatest: 100 Greatest TV Characters (2001)

User Reviews

Filled with humour and pathos.

To anyone who loves to observe the eccentricities of the human condition, this film is a real gem.

Other reviewers have rightly pointed out that very little actually happens: it's just an English couple on a camping trip in the 1970s. But that analysis is to ignore the genius at work in the writing, and the acting of the two leads. Every frame, every line, every gesture is filled with humour and pathos - if you're prepared to look for it.

Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman are just sublime in their portrayal of the new-age suburban middle class couple. We scorn them, we pity them, we recognise them and we like them (albeit we wouldn't want to spend much time with them).

For me, the other characters - though necessary for the 'plot,' are less well-drawn. But the two leads are on screen so constantly it barely matters.

There's not much else to say, really. You just have to watch it. A warning though: once discovered, this is the sort of film you want to watch again and again. The dilemma is how you strike the balance between savouring it regularly without getting to know it too well.... I think the important thing is to use your discretion.