Dave Rattigan

Billy Liar (1963) and Odd Man Out (1947) tie for me as my all-time favourite films.

Billy Liar I have watched since I was a child, when I identified strongly with Billy's imaginative nature. Ironically, I saw him as a hero. It has remained my number one film fairly consistently throughout my adult life.

samkydd

I watched my free with a newspaper DVD Billy Liar the other night for the first time and really enjoyed it, the last time I saw the film was when I was a lad. The cast was very good indeed and the film seemed to capture the era quite well. When I first saw the film I was full of youthful dreams and ambitions of doing something interesting in life and hoping to break away from the drudgery of school and living at home, but now watching it thirty years later I sometimes wish I could go back to those days.

I was particularly impressed with Wilfred Pickles as Billy's Dad, who was so much like my father in his attitude, well not quite as bad as my father, that I felt quite scared like I was encountering a flashback to childhood. The funeral parlour where Billy worked was almost Dickensian, as were Shadrack and his partner, and it was no place for three young men to work!

I am interested in discovering the locations for the film, in particular the road the Fisher's house was in. That style of house could almost be the subject of a John Betjeman poem!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

NappieB

I loved the movie - samkydd's comments about a period piece are spot on!

I hated the subsequent (1970s) TV series!