Bad Behaviour – 1993 | 104mins | Comedy, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

This very British blend of low key humour, heartache and home improvements in this portrait of marriage, middle classes and midlife crises in London. Director Les Blair’s improvised social comedy celebrates the mundane and stands and falls on the viewer’s recognition and acceptance of natural character types.

Set in the North London’s suburbs, Irish married couple the McAllister’s, local planner Gerry (Stephen Rea) and stay-at-home wife Ellie (Sinead Cusack) have got their fair share of domestic dilemmas; they are married with two kids and a subsiding bathroom. To carry out work on their bathroom renovation they’ve accepted advice from crooked entrepreneur Howard Spink (Philip Jackson) and his recommended builders: the double-take Nunn Brothers (Phil Daniels). Over the coming weeks they fall out with predatory Spink over money, frustrated Ellie loses a neurotic friend (Claire Higgins) and Gerry enjoys some harmless flirting with a work colleague.