Riff-Raff (1991)

The story of Stevie, a construction worker, and his girlfriend, an unemployed pop singer, serves to show the living conditions of the British poor class

Director:

Ken Loach

Writer:

Bill Jesse (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert Carlyle, Emer McCourt, Jim R. Coleman

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Carlyle	...	Stevie
Emer McCourt	...	Susan
Jim R. Coleman	...	Shem (as Jimmy Coleman)
George Moss	...	Mo
Ricky Tomlinson	...	Larry
David Finch	...	Kevin
Richard Belgrave	...	Kojo
Ade Sapara	...	Fiaman
Derek Young	...	Desmonde
Bill Moores	...	Smurph
Luke Kelly	...	Ken Jones
Gary Lammin	...	Mick (as Garrie J. Lammin)
Willie Ross	...	Gus Siddon
Dean Perry	...	Wilf
Dylan O'Mahony	...	Youth

Storyline

The story of Stevie, a construction worker, and his girlfriend, an unemployed pop singer, serves to show the living conditions of the British poor class

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Plot Keywords:

squatting | killing a rat | scaffold | singing audition | standing in the bath tub | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 February 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lim-lom

Filming Locations:

Deaconess Court, Tottenham Green East, Tottenham, London, England, UK

Box Office

Gross USA:

$295,444

Company Credits

Production Co:

Parallax Pictures,Channel Four Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The accents of the characters was so heavy that the film provided subtitles, even for British audiences.

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Goofs

Between 7:56 and 8:00 minutes into the movie, as Robert Carlyle enters his squat for the first time, you can clearly see the boom under the ceiling and the boom operator on the left as Robert walks by.

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Quotes

Larry: Can anyone explain to me why someone's got to make a profit every time you boil a kettle, every time your kid has a drink of water or every time a pensioner has a warm by a gas fire?

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Connections

Featured in Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach (2016)

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Soundtracks

The Sun Has Got His Hat On
Composed by Ralph T. Butler (as Ralph Butler) and Noel Gay
Performed by Emer McCourt

User Reviews

Powerful 1980's Thatcherite comedy-drama that is well worth watching.

It is rare that a drama is anything about your life or any part of it. I apologise is your job is searching for serial killers or on your way to becoming a world sporting champion after overcoming cancer, but what we have here is a little bit of (UK) working class reality. Trust me I was there and so was the late writer Bill Jess.

(Jess died shortly before this film came out.)

I worked on a building sites at weekends as a 15 year old and although I have no pictures or film to remind - at least I have this and the buildings that I helped construct.

I have met all of the people under the loop here (not always on building sites though) and, to be quite frank, it is all a bit frightening. However I lived in a predominantly white district so I had no experience of on-the-job multiculturalism, and that is the only part I cannot really comment upon or relate to.

Robert Carlyle is a genius at portraying the British working-class. Maybe he is the real thing, in part, but he seems able to transform himself physically as well as mentally. I have never seen him overact in anything and he has had plenty of opportunities. He even takes on impossible parts like Hitler!

Here he is a Glasgow jailbird, squatting in London and hoping to make a few quid on the black economy. He hooks up with a girl that claims to be a singer and poet, but is actually only in to hard drugs. He deals with the situation the best he can using the only language he can.

London is the 1980's was one of the cheapest places in the world to live. You wanted a flat? - get a crowbar - here's your flat! Well for a short while before the heavy mob show up. That is how the rock group The Police first got to live in our capital city!

(Today building sites are full of foreign workers - some legal, some not - that don't squat but live in the back of vans parked on or near the site.)

Strangely, Ricky Tomlinson became a actor after being banned from building sites due to his political activities. In 1973 he sent to jail (see his IMDb bio) in an episode that shows British justice at its worst: Charging someone with a serious offence and then trying to get a guilty plea in return for a lesser charge. Ricky - being a man not a mouse - didn't fall for it. Others did, making it look extra bad for him.

He later went to be a popular man on TV and British film and will earn over a million dollars from his autobiography "Ricky"!

What makes this film even more frightening is the dramatic conclusion. Something similar (although not quite as serious) happened where I worked - although not while I was there.

In a coincidence that would make a TV script writer blush I was with the boss of the said firm in a van and we passed the subject in the street. "He got very lucky," said Mr Boss-man waving from the van, "he landed on his head and that is what saved him." It was pure Ken Loach moment, so I hope he is reading this.