Rattle Of A Simple Man [DVD]

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In 1988 she again drew on personal experience – she had cancer three times – to bring poignancy to the character of Mrs Dewey, an elderly woman dying of cancer, in Eskimos Do It (1988), part of the BBC2 Screenplay series. The previous year she had had a small but intense role as the gin-soaked mother Mrs Brent in Miss Marple: Nemesis. Muriel Box and her sister Betty are among the subjects of Rebecca Cooke’s very interesting and enjoyable book Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties (2013). Cooke mentions Rattle of a Simple Man (‘a second-rate comedy’) only in passing but something else she writes about Muriel and her producer husband Sydney rings particularly true after you’ve watched this film:

I was reminded of this film today in an article from the Guardian newspaper. I saw it at the age of 13 in the local fleapit, now a listed art deco building. I'm pretty sure it came with an X certificate, but I was big for my age and got in to many restricted shows - I'd got into The Birds a few months earlier. I also seem to recall that it was the "B" film and that I rated it far higher than the "A" film. I was blown away. I haven't seen it since. Who knows if I'd rate it as highly the second time round? However, it's stayed in my memory all these years, especially the way Corbett transformed himself from his part in Steptoe and Son to this naïve put upon virgin. Other television roles included Doris Entwhistle in the sitcom Fairly Secret Army (1984-86), starring Geoffrey Palmer, and she had guest appearances in many series including The Avengers, The Goodies, Jason King, Robin’s Nest, Rumpole of the Bailey, Birds of a Feather, Last of the Summer Wine and Foyle’s War.

Stephen Tompkinson gives a wonderful performance as the gauche Percy, who expresses the mannerisms of a by-gone age, where a man never curses in front of a lady. He gives Percy an adolescent innocence, which only makes his admission of feeling inadequate all the more painful. Manchester mill worker Percy is not new to London, visiting to see his beloved United play whenever they have a fixture in the capital. This cup final weekend, however, the 30-something virgin's eyes are opened to a whole new world and lifestyle, up close and personal.

Film and television roles rarely allowed such opportunities to stretch her acting muscles. An early attempt to switch from comedy to drama on the big screen proved unsuccessful and Liz was self-deprecating about her disastrous performance as Jo Lake in Lance Comfort’s The Painted Smile (1962). Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. However, more dramatic character roles eventually came, including the lead role of Delilah, an ageing model and actor, in the TV drama Sight Unseen (1977), an episode in the She anthology series. Here Liz essayed a touching performance of faded beauty. I saw the "The Rattle of A Simple Man" probably in the North Atlantic in December of 1965 and still sit up when I hear or read the name of Diane Cilento. She and the movie made that big an impression on me! I've certainly been a fan of British film ever since.Good Neighbor Sam (1964) Anxiously awaiting a divorce from her husband, beautiful Janet Lagerlof (Romy Schneider) is suddenly plunged into a complex situation when… Ruling Class, The (1972) The 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews) dies after a spot of auto-erotic asphyxiation-gone wrong). The reading of the will… Percy (Stephen Tompkinson) slowly admits to Cyrenne that he still lives with his mum; is a source of fun for his friends and that he feels very uneasy with anything to do with sex. "I'm everything the French laugh at about the English," he bemoans. He is more comfortable putting on Cyrenne's apron to wash the dishes then he is with the thought of climbing into her bed. Whereas Muriel Box was approaching sixty when she made Rattle, Charles Dyer was only in his mid-thirties but they combine, in opening out the play for the screen, to make the material stupidly condescending – especially in the soccer supporter element. Box inserts – for ‘realism’ – shots of an FA Cup Final crowd yet there’s not a hint of anyone in Percy’s party caring in the least what happens to their team at Wembley. Unless I missed it, we never know what does happen – though much of the film’s audience in 1964 would have been well aware that Manchester United had won the Cup the previous year. The northerners’ day trip to London is presented as an only-here-for-the-beer works outing.