Christine Painter (Julie Walters) is a working-class single mother struggling to make ends meet who opens her own brothel with the aid of an experienced prostitute and a transvestite RAF officer.
This is a gently witty, if curiously coy, attempt by director Terry Jones to re-create the odd career of real-life “luncheon voucher madam” Cynthia Payne.
Julie Walters is a good choice to portray Payne’s droll matter-of-factness about the sexual proclivities of middle-aged men, but in its jolly, almost seaside postcard approach, the movie loses edge and bite.
Jones and co basically bolster up the one-dimensional image of Walters’s character as a cheery old duck whose early life was hard, but rich in experience, while its truly sad aspects are blithely glossed over.
Christine Painter
Julie Walters Wing Commander Morton
Alec McCowen Shirley
Shirley Stelfox Dolly
Danny Schiller Rose
Victoria Hardcastle Timms
Tim Woodward Sydney
Dave Atkins
Director
Terry Jones
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This is a gently witty, if curiously coy, attempt by director Terry Jones to re-create the odd career of real-life “luncheon voucher madam” Cynthia Payne.
Christine Painter
