Although you might expect broad humour from Michael Palin ("Monty Python"), he goes for the subdued approach on this wonderful coming-of-age tale. The embarrassing predicaments of the lead character are so painfully real that it seems more like a documentary than a movie. For all the teenage boys out there!
9 Reviews
thank god for the sixties!
richard-meredith275 February 2007
The 50's were a strange time for British youth and families. The war was over and er...that's it. Its the fag end of empire and this film is the fag end of childhood and seaside holidays.
The film is a rites of passage film and tells us how awful it was to have raging hormones, no outlet and be in a situation where family and society did not know about teen-age, or frivolity. Everybody, from the Elderly down to Child, exists in a vacuum of dullness. The only exception to the 'rule of grey' is the sexually promiscuous Dutch girl who knows everything is so boring and has to change, or be changed. (No doubt she ended up hanging around in Hamburg with Astrid, Klaus and Stu Sutcliffe.) The film is a skillful piece of work by Michael Palin and is based on his own childhood memories of holidays on the Suffolk coast. It is a pity he has not continued to write more films like this, instead of concentrating on the lucrative travel documentary market, because he brings a mild absurdity to everyday life giving 'East of Ipswich' a dusting of John Betjeman over an Alan Bennett prosaic narrative.
But perhaps I am being too serious. It is a jolly film with some belly laughs and good lines, and well paced.
There is a lot to look and listen out for. The nod towards fellow Ex-Python Eric Idle's 'nudge, nudge' sketch; the cast, all of whom are solid TV and stage characters; the Sea Side Mission (recently the subject of a radio discussion); the skiffle and jazz soundtrack; the cricket commentary and, of course the grotesque boarding house.
Made by the BBC for Screen Two and subsequently shamefully neglected it deserves a new audience and a place on the cultural history curriculum.
The film is a rites of passage film and tells us how awful it was to have raging hormones, no outlet and be in a situation where family and society did not know about teen-age, or frivolity. Everybody, from the Elderly down to Child, exists in a vacuum of dullness. The only exception to the 'rule of grey' is the sexually promiscuous Dutch girl who knows everything is so boring and has to change, or be changed. (No doubt she ended up hanging around in Hamburg with Astrid, Klaus and Stu Sutcliffe.) The film is a skillful piece of work by Michael Palin and is based on his own childhood memories of holidays on the Suffolk coast. It is a pity he has not continued to write more films like this, instead of concentrating on the lucrative travel documentary market, because he brings a mild absurdity to everyday life giving 'East of Ipswich' a dusting of John Betjeman over an Alan Bennett prosaic narrative.
But perhaps I am being too serious. It is a jolly film with some belly laughs and good lines, and well paced.
There is a lot to look and listen out for. The nod towards fellow Ex-Python Eric Idle's 'nudge, nudge' sketch; the cast, all of whom are solid TV and stage characters; the Sea Side Mission (recently the subject of a radio discussion); the skiffle and jazz soundtrack; the cricket commentary and, of course the grotesque boarding house.
Made by the BBC for Screen Two and subsequently shamefully neglected it deserves a new audience and a place on the cultural history curriculum.
Who wanted the Grape Nuts?
g-hbe27 December 2021
This is one of my favourite made-for-TV films. Its Author Micheal Palin is obviously writing from the heart as he deals with subjects such as boring parents, bored teens, dismal cafes, trendy vicars and of course girls and sex. Don't expect any excitement or drama, because in places like Southwold in the 50's there was none, and you wouldn't find much today either. Gently amusing and with the odd Python reference to keep you smiling, this is a good film that deserves a better outing. I got it on DVD for Christmas!
East of Ipswich
Prismark1011 May 2023
I recall some reviews of this BBC television film written by Michael Palin were rather unkind back in 1987. A few mentioned that if Palin wanted to relieve his adolescence then he should not inflict it on the rest of Britain.
Of course, the Pythons were still seen as controversial back then courtesy of Life of Brian. Palin was not yet a national treasure, his travelogues would come later.
Set in the late 1950s and semi biographical. East of Ipswich has seventeen-year-old Richard and his parents travelling to Suffolk for their holidays.
Richard is not happy as they normally go to Torquay, play crazy golf and lie on the beach. His parents fancied a change this year. They end up in a guest house run by the stern Miss Wilbraham (Joan Sanderson) with a fistful of rules.
In this coming of age film. Richard gets the hots for Julia who is also on holiday with her parents but her Dutch friend Anna always seems to wander off with some bikers. Richard can never get to spend much time with her.
Then along with another boy of his age. They pick up twins, their father is a vicar but these girls like to fool around. Richard ends up kissing one of them.
There is a lot of charm here but it's a slight story. Mainly about a teenager whose hormones are getting the better of him.
It is startling to see just how old his parents look. Both actors playing Richard's parents would have been in their 50s. Palin also pokes fun at fellow Python John Cleese.
No Torquay for Richard but the officious landlady has a hint of Basil Fawlty about her. Joan Sanderson memorably appeared in Fawlty Towers.
Of course, the Pythons were still seen as controversial back then courtesy of Life of Brian. Palin was not yet a national treasure, his travelogues would come later.
Set in the late 1950s and semi biographical. East of Ipswich has seventeen-year-old Richard and his parents travelling to Suffolk for their holidays.
Richard is not happy as they normally go to Torquay, play crazy golf and lie on the beach. His parents fancied a change this year. They end up in a guest house run by the stern Miss Wilbraham (Joan Sanderson) with a fistful of rules.
In this coming of age film. Richard gets the hots for Julia who is also on holiday with her parents but her Dutch friend Anna always seems to wander off with some bikers. Richard can never get to spend much time with her.
Then along with another boy of his age. They pick up twins, their father is a vicar but these girls like to fool around. Richard ends up kissing one of them.
There is a lot of charm here but it's a slight story. Mainly about a teenager whose hormones are getting the better of him.
It is startling to see just how old his parents look. Both actors playing Richard's parents would have been in their 50s. Palin also pokes fun at fellow Python John Cleese.
No Torquay for Richard but the officious landlady has a hint of Basil Fawlty about her. Joan Sanderson memorably appeared in Fawlty Towers.
Another lost gem - what are you doing BBC?
Dunks9997 July 2009
I agree with richard-meredith27 - this is a lost gem. They released all of Palin's 'Ripping Yarns' on video & then DVD some time ago but this seems to have been passed over. Shame as it was BAFTA nominated in 1988. It was one of the first things I recorded on my brand spanking new VHS video recorder in 1987. I still have the tape somewhere.
I wasn't born in the 1950s but I certainly remember going to stay with my family at a musty old boarding house in Bournemouth in the late 1960s so it rings wonderfully true with me.
Edward Rawle-Hicks is superb as the repressed and frustrated Richard and John Wagland gives him good support as the 'worldly wise' bullshitter, Edwin, who befriends him. The class observations are so accurate of the period - Edwin's father appearing as a bit of a spiv and a ladies-man (he's come on holiday with his boys but HAS NO WIFE! The scandal!!) Whilst Richard is firmly lower middle-class: third-rate public school; father in middle management; smothered only child. The Hargreaves who ingratiate themselves are also lovingly detestable - nouveau riche, he's in the up-and-coming sportswear market and they're both rapaciously hungry social ladder-climbers.
The object of Richard's affection - Julia Horrobin (Oona Kirsch), is way out of his class league and thus all-the-more desirable, whilst her companion, the slutty Dutch girl, Anna (Pippa Hinchley), is the only character who actually knows what is going on & foresees the change that is just around the corner (this is pre-Beatles, remember). The trendy vicar (Roger Brierley) is also a sweet nod to this: "I hear there's a vicar in Eastbourne who does skiffle evensong!" "Well done to Team B. And they win - a bottle of lemonade!" Richard is played with such beautiful, knowing understatement that any male cannot fail to wince at the mind-numbing boredom and the appalling embarrassment he witnesses and endures, the intermittent cricket commentary providing a cheeky Greek Chorus to all of this.
The film is populated with many well-loved and experienced character actors who play (to a greater or lesser extent) perfectly observed grotesques of the period - notably Joan Sanderson who will forever be, to people of my generation, Miss Ewell from Please Sir! and the crotchety, deaf Mrs Richards in the Fawlty Towers episode "Communication Problems". She's outstanding, as always, but so is everyone else. It's an impressive ensemble, notably during the group cricket match: "Right, I'll give you one of me Specials!" I agree with others - this is not just a warm, gentle comedy, it's accurately observed social history.
And the killer line of the film is the last line spoken (young lads, remember this!), by Richard's Dad:
"All bodywork, those Rovers, no performance!"
I wasn't born in the 1950s but I certainly remember going to stay with my family at a musty old boarding house in Bournemouth in the late 1960s so it rings wonderfully true with me.
Edward Rawle-Hicks is superb as the repressed and frustrated Richard and John Wagland gives him good support as the 'worldly wise' bullshitter, Edwin, who befriends him. The class observations are so accurate of the period - Edwin's father appearing as a bit of a spiv and a ladies-man (he's come on holiday with his boys but HAS NO WIFE! The scandal!!) Whilst Richard is firmly lower middle-class: third-rate public school; father in middle management; smothered only child. The Hargreaves who ingratiate themselves are also lovingly detestable - nouveau riche, he's in the up-and-coming sportswear market and they're both rapaciously hungry social ladder-climbers.
The object of Richard's affection - Julia Horrobin (Oona Kirsch), is way out of his class league and thus all-the-more desirable, whilst her companion, the slutty Dutch girl, Anna (Pippa Hinchley), is the only character who actually knows what is going on & foresees the change that is just around the corner (this is pre-Beatles, remember). The trendy vicar (Roger Brierley) is also a sweet nod to this: "I hear there's a vicar in Eastbourne who does skiffle evensong!" "Well done to Team B. And they win - a bottle of lemonade!" Richard is played with such beautiful, knowing understatement that any male cannot fail to wince at the mind-numbing boredom and the appalling embarrassment he witnesses and endures, the intermittent cricket commentary providing a cheeky Greek Chorus to all of this.
The film is populated with many well-loved and experienced character actors who play (to a greater or lesser extent) perfectly observed grotesques of the period - notably Joan Sanderson who will forever be, to people of my generation, Miss Ewell from Please Sir! and the crotchety, deaf Mrs Richards in the Fawlty Towers episode "Communication Problems". She's outstanding, as always, but so is everyone else. It's an impressive ensemble, notably during the group cricket match: "Right, I'll give you one of me Specials!" I agree with others - this is not just a warm, gentle comedy, it's accurately observed social history.
And the killer line of the film is the last line spoken (young lads, remember this!), by Richard's Dad:
"All bodywork, those Rovers, no performance!"
A Big Surprise - It's Very Good!
Enrique-Sanchez-5620 August 2017
I started watching and had no idea where it was going. I stopped it and had a sandwich. Read something about it. And then resumed watching.
What eventually happened was that I really began to like it as I started to identify with the main character boy. I began to think about my old days... and I couldn't keep my eyes off of the story.
It took me in and I must say that I was very pleased with the result. MICHAEL PALIN did a wonderful job here. The various people and situations all seemed familiar. They struck a deep nerve of my subconscious and conscious memories of my youth. That's not to say that anything like this happened to me. But, I connected with the whole thing in the best way.
I recommend this to anyone over 40 who might want to reminisce about things of their past youth.
What eventually happened was that I really began to like it as I started to identify with the main character boy. I began to think about my old days... and I couldn't keep my eyes off of the story.
It took me in and I must say that I was very pleased with the result. MICHAEL PALIN did a wonderful job here. The various people and situations all seemed familiar. They struck a deep nerve of my subconscious and conscious memories of my youth. That's not to say that anything like this happened to me. But, I connected with the whole thing in the best way.
I recommend this to anyone over 40 who might want to reminisce about things of their past youth.
Great
mikeiskorn30 October 2021
I love these kinds of British programs. It's dark and gritty and makes you feel nostalgic for your own youth, especially if you've been on a holiday to the seaside as a kid in the UK! Wonderfully acted, especially liked the BnB hostess haha definitely worth a watch for an hour.
Witty and Engaging Coming-of-Age Story
JamesHitchcock12 January 2024
The end of the long-running "Play for Today" series in 1984 did not mark the end of the BBC's commitment to one-off television dramas. (That end was to come around a decade later, in the late nineties). Its replacement was "Screen Two", a series of television films mainly shot on location and influenced by the "Film Four" series produced by Channel Four, whereas "Plays for Today" had, as the title suggests, been television plays rather than films, mostly filmed in a studio. "Play for Today" had been screened on BBC1, but "Screen Two" was moved to BBC2, hence the name. In the seventies and eighties the two channels had quite separate identities, BBC1 being the channel for general entertainment whereas BBC2 tended to show the Beeb's more highbrow and intellectual offerings. Somebody obviously thought that serious drama belonged in the latter category. (BBC1 was later to start its own "Screen One" series, possibly because the demarcation lines between the channels were starting to break down).
"East of Ipswich" is a drama from the third series of "Screen Two" in 1987. It was written by the former Python Michael Palin, who claimed it was based on memories of his childhood holidays in the 1950s. During this period few people could afford a holiday abroad, so they made their way to Britain's seaside resort, often staying. In boarding houses as a cheaper alternative to hotels. 17-year-old Richard is taken, unwillingly, to the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold, here disguised under the fictitious name of Easton. Richard would much rather go to the family's normal destination of Torquay, a larger resort which at this period would probably have offered more in the way of entertainment, but but his parents insist on a change from their normal routine.
And Easton turns out to be just as boring as Richard feared it would. There are no facilities for young people and little to do except sit on the beach or attend the functions organised by the local vicar, a well-meaning but dull and patronising individual, for the church youth group. The family's boarding house is run by Miss Wilbraham, a domineering elderly lady who has evidently never heard of the maxim that the customer is always right; in her view it is Miss Wilbraham who is always right, and her customers are expected to comply with her strict rules.
Richard's opinion of Easton, however, improves when he realises that he can use his holiday as an opportunity to pick up girls. He befriends Edwin, another boy of the same age staying in the same boarding house and they go on a double date with the twin daughters of the vicar. This is not very satisfactory, as the girls are just as worthy and dulls their father, but a more promising situation arises when Edwin arranges another date with Julia, another visitor, and her Dutch friend Anna.
The eighties can be seen as Palin's "middle years" between his Python years of the seventies and his reinvention as himself as a presenter of travel documentaries. These documentaries are highly popular, but I have always had mixed feelings about them. They are entertaining enough, but they seem to be a distraction away from what I have always seen as Palin's main gifts as a writer and actor. Not everything that he did in his middle years was a masterpiece- I have always regarded "A Fish Called Wanda" as overrated and "The Meaning of Life" did not add much to the Monty Python story- but these were also the years when he was involved with brilliantly original films like "The Missionary" and "A Private Function" and television programmes like "Ripping Yarns", all of which have a depth and originality not found in his travelogues.
"East of Ipswich" is another excellent production of this period. Although it contains plenty of humour, it is not a pure comedy like, say, "The Missionary" but rather a witty and engaging coming-of-age story. I am not old enough to remember the fifties- I wasn't even born then- but there was enough in my own experience of family holidays in the seventies for me to identify with young Richard. Apart fro "American Friends" from 1991, it seems s shame that Palin hans't really produced anything like this since. 8/10.
"East of Ipswich" is a drama from the third series of "Screen Two" in 1987. It was written by the former Python Michael Palin, who claimed it was based on memories of his childhood holidays in the 1950s. During this period few people could afford a holiday abroad, so they made their way to Britain's seaside resort, often staying. In boarding houses as a cheaper alternative to hotels. 17-year-old Richard is taken, unwillingly, to the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold, here disguised under the fictitious name of Easton. Richard would much rather go to the family's normal destination of Torquay, a larger resort which at this period would probably have offered more in the way of entertainment, but but his parents insist on a change from their normal routine.
And Easton turns out to be just as boring as Richard feared it would. There are no facilities for young people and little to do except sit on the beach or attend the functions organised by the local vicar, a well-meaning but dull and patronising individual, for the church youth group. The family's boarding house is run by Miss Wilbraham, a domineering elderly lady who has evidently never heard of the maxim that the customer is always right; in her view it is Miss Wilbraham who is always right, and her customers are expected to comply with her strict rules.
Richard's opinion of Easton, however, improves when he realises that he can use his holiday as an opportunity to pick up girls. He befriends Edwin, another boy of the same age staying in the same boarding house and they go on a double date with the twin daughters of the vicar. This is not very satisfactory, as the girls are just as worthy and dulls their father, but a more promising situation arises when Edwin arranges another date with Julia, another visitor, and her Dutch friend Anna.
The eighties can be seen as Palin's "middle years" between his Python years of the seventies and his reinvention as himself as a presenter of travel documentaries. These documentaries are highly popular, but I have always had mixed feelings about them. They are entertaining enough, but they seem to be a distraction away from what I have always seen as Palin's main gifts as a writer and actor. Not everything that he did in his middle years was a masterpiece- I have always regarded "A Fish Called Wanda" as overrated and "The Meaning of Life" did not add much to the Monty Python story- but these were also the years when he was involved with brilliantly original films like "The Missionary" and "A Private Function" and television programmes like "Ripping Yarns", all of which have a depth and originality not found in his travelogues.
"East of Ipswich" is another excellent production of this period. Although it contains plenty of humour, it is not a pure comedy like, say, "The Missionary" but rather a witty and engaging coming-of-age story. I am not old enough to remember the fifties- I wasn't even born then- but there was enough in my own experience of family holidays in the seventies for me to identify with young Richard. Apart fro "American Friends" from 1991, it seems s shame that Palin hans't really produced anything like this since. 8/10.
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