In post-war Yorkshire, with rationing still very much in force, mild-mannered chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers (Michael Palin) tries to prove his worth to the snobbish locals by kidnapping a pig which is being fattened up for a local banquet to celebrate the 1947 royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.
With its gentle, witty portrait of postwar Britain and its sly digs at bourgeois aspirations, this comedy has the stamp of Ealing about it.
Scripted by Alan Bennett, it is an often hilarious mixture of well-observed social comedy and sometimes laborious earthy humour, much of the latter being inspired by the bodily functions of the pig who has been fed on an ‘austerity diet’ including toenail clippings and ground rat.
Palin does a nice line in mortified meekness as Gilbert, but he is upstaged by Maggie Smith, as his scheming wife, Joyce, and Liz Smith as Joyce’s hilariously dotty old mum, whose eccentric antics and distracted ramblings provide some of the highlights.
Gilbert Chilvers
Michael Palin Joyce Chilvers
Maggie Smith Dr Charles Swaby
Denholm Elliott Henry Allardyce
Richard Griffiths Bernard Sutcliff
Tony Haygarth Frank Lockwood
John Normington Douglas Nuttal
Pete Postlethwaite Maurice Wormold
Bill Paterson Mother
Liz Smith Mrs Allardyce
Alison Steadman Inspector Howard Noble
Jim Carter PC Penny
Reece Dinsdale Barraclough
Don Estelle Mrs Sutcliff
Eileen O’Brien
Director
Malcolm Mowbray
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