Mike Leigh's early film 'Nuts in May' was first aired on BBC TV in January 1976 as part of their 'Play for Today' series.
It charts the experience of Keith (Roger Sloman) and Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) who are somehow made for one another (at school) and never quite break out of the mould which their staid and sensible schoolteachers have wrought for them.
At no point - it seems - in their careful upbringing have they quite grasped that, in life, things are not always what they seem.. and that people don't always mean what they say.
Or that the rules and regulations that apply to children cannot possibly be carried forward successfully into adult life.
The title of the play is, itself, a clue. It is one of the few benefits of getting older that I can remember skipping enthusiastically, aged 4 years old and singing the song that goes 'Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May. Here we go gathering nuts in May, on a cold and frosty morning'. Or, at least, that's what I sincerely believe I remember.
But this is madness, isn't it ? There are no nuts in May to gather. Nuts are the result of the growth of trees during the summer ! Squirrels gather them in Autumn, bury them.. and often forget about them. Nobody in their right mind ever tried to go gathering nuts in May, with any reasonable hope of success.
But Keith and Candice-Marie seem to feel honour bound to do so. Their life, in early adulthood is tied inexorably the daft things well-meaning, misinformed 'grown-ups' have told them when they were very young.
By some awful mischance, they have failed to reap the many benefits that healthy scepticism and good old adolescent rebellion confers.
Roger kisses a hot-water bottle named 'Prudence' each night, when he should be saying something else.
Although I couldn't begin to tell you where to get hold of a print of this great film. It's so good, that any effort would be well justified... even if the hot-water bottle is not actually named 'Prudence'. After all, it was over 30 years ago when I last saw this film.
It charts the experience of Keith (Roger Sloman) and Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) who are somehow made for one another (at school) and never quite break out of the mould which their staid and sensible schoolteachers have wrought for them.
At no point - it seems - in their careful upbringing have they quite grasped that, in life, things are not always what they seem.. and that people don't always mean what they say.
Or that the rules and regulations that apply to children cannot possibly be carried forward successfully into adult life.
The title of the play is, itself, a clue. It is one of the few benefits of getting older that I can remember skipping enthusiastically, aged 4 years old and singing the song that goes 'Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May. Here we go gathering nuts in May, on a cold and frosty morning'. Or, at least, that's what I sincerely believe I remember.
But this is madness, isn't it ? There are no nuts in May to gather. Nuts are the result of the growth of trees during the summer ! Squirrels gather them in Autumn, bury them.. and often forget about them. Nobody in their right mind ever tried to go gathering nuts in May, with any reasonable hope of success.
But Keith and Candice-Marie seem to feel honour bound to do so. Their life, in early adulthood is tied inexorably the daft things well-meaning, misinformed 'grown-ups' have told them when they were very young.
By some awful mischance, they have failed to reap the many benefits that healthy scepticism and good old adolescent rebellion confers.
Roger kisses a hot-water bottle named 'Prudence' each night, when he should be saying something else.
Although I couldn't begin to tell you where to get hold of a print of this great film. It's so good, that any effort would be well justified... even if the hot-water bottle is not actually named 'Prudence'. After all, it was over 30 years ago when I last saw this film.