The Ploughman’s Lunch – 1983 | 107 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Ian McEwan’s examination of the Suez affair is turned into a pessimistic critique of the media and shabby English values, set during the Falklands crisis but filtered through the perspective of Suez. Sadly, the resulting film is far too literary for its own good, and fails to cast much illumination on either past or present. The excellent cast are purposefully restrained and Jonathan Pryce turns in a scarily convincing performance as an ambitious newsroom hack thirsting after prestige.

Set against the backdrop of the outbreak of the Falklands War and the 1982 Conservative Party Conference with the resurgent traditionalist old guard triumphing over the liberal middle classes. Ambitious and self-centred BBC radio journalist James Penfield (Jonathan Pryce) is researching a book about Suez, whilst pursuing an affair with a woman he fancies precisely because she is literally out of his class; television researcher Susan Barrington (Charlie Dore) whose mother, a left-wing historian, has also written on Suez. Penfield writes from an extremely partisan right-wing angle to satisfy his political paymasters, and his opportunism brings nothing but misery and emptiness.