Withnail & I

[ejb]

This wonderful film must have the saddest ending I've ever seen . The sheer bleakness of the rainsoaked park, combined with that feeling of the devastating loneliness and emptiness that comes with saying goodbye to someone for the last time never fails to move me.

[Freddy]

So true ejb, Withnail realises his friend is moving on but he is stuck with his drink and his demons. I also think many people who were a similar age at that period, including me recognised something of themselves in the pair.



For those who want to know the ending, here courtesy of

http://obriendavid.tripod.com/withnail.html

is the final scene



'I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promotory; this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this mighty o'rehanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire; why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, how like an angel in aprehension, how like a God! The beauty of the world, paragon of animals; and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dusk. Man delights not me, no, nor women neither, nor women neither.'

many thanks to Hamlet and Will

regards

Freddy



[ 15. January 2005, 00:32: Message edited by: Freddy ]

[Tony Pendrey]

There is some interesting discussion on this aspect of the movie on IMDB. Apparently the film was to end with the suicide of Withnail. This was deemed too morbid and they left it as it is. I think it works brilliantly, you really get a feel for the hopelessness and loneliness of his situation. I'd also add that the Hamlet speech is about the most apt ever delivered on film.

[DB7]

Must-have movies: Withnail and I



It's sometimes tempting to view Withnail and I, Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical chronicle of two struggling, London-based actors going on holiday "by mistake" in bleakest Penrith, as little more than a collection of quotable lines stacked against one another. Many people who have never seen the film might justifiably feel as if they have, thanks to a generation of overgrown students taking sentences such as "We want the finest wines available to humanity!" and repeating them ad delirium. Understandably, this can be a little off-putting.



The fact is that, for all its admirable, writerly qualities, the place where Robinson's script works best is within the confines of the movie itself. One of the best things about Withnail and I is its accurate re-creation of the surreal fug surrounding a hangover, where things that wouldn't normally be funny ("Have either of you got shoes?" says the main character's drug dealer at one point, for no apparent reason) suddenly are screamingly so.</p> <p class="story">The teetotal Richard E Grant, as the cowardly, scheming, out-of-luck Withnail, contributes immeasurably to this ambience with a performance that he has spent the subsequent years of his career trying to shake off. Suffered by Paul McGann (the nameless "I" of the title), he drinks lighter fluid, rants sleeplessly about the injustice of, well, everything, and generally does the most wonderful, prancing disservice to his profession humanly possible.



Needless to say, now that our understanding of the '60s is so much more evolved, the film's squalidly attractive, thoroughly British portrait of the dying months of 1969 (the shots of the pair's jalopy cruising up a deserted M1 remain a sight of indescribable beauty) seems more right than ever. For what is essentially a couple of blokes talking rubbish for an hour and a half, the whole thing has a rare poignance.

[aaron]

I was going on for weeks to people about how great this film is..talking about the depth, the humour, the performances etc. Some people just don't get it...

There interest starts to wain, when i tell them the plot..

'Two out of work actors go on holiday - When they return, one has a job , the other hasn't'

[Freddy]

Bruce Robinson lived for good while with the scrumptious Lesley Anne Down while he pursued his writing career. What was nice about the whole thing was the Daily Mail was always on his back, you know the thing, writer who has had little or no success.



If living with L.A.D. isn't success enough he then goes and does the Killing Fields and more, well then. up yours daily mail



Freddy

[bluedog]

Originally posted by aaron@May 1 2005, 08:52 PM

I was going on for weeks to people about how great this film is..talking about the depth, the humour, the performances etc. Some people just don't get it...

There interest starts to wain, when i tell them the plot..

'Two out of work actors go on holiday - When they return, one has a job , the other hasn't'

Pardon me but you cannot explain this film with rhetoric or singular quotations. This film trancends "plot". It's brilliance and timeless appeal lie in the fact that you can apply this two way relationship between the main characters to any decade or era you choose. It deals with the raw facts of living in abject poverty and the dreams and aspirations of those who strive to better themselves. It also proves that humour can be found in the most dire of situations - without glitzy spin. It is something that Hollywood might like to take note of instead of pandering to the PC brigade!

[aaron]

Originally posted by bluedog@May 1 2005, 10:42 PM

Pardon me but you cannot explain this film with rhetoric or singular quotations. This film trancends "plot". It's brilliance and timeless appeal lie in the fact that you can apply this two way relationship between the main characters to any decade or era you choose. It deals with the raw facts of living in abject poverty and the dreams and aspirations of those who strive to better themselves. It also proves that humour can be found in the most dire of situations - without glitzy spin. It is something that Hollywood might like to take note of instead of pandering to the PC brigade!

Yes, my point entirely.....

[bluedog]

Originally posted by aaron@May 1 2005, 11:21 PM

Yes, my point entirely.....

Oh Heaven. Someone out there actually agrees with my point of view! Bless you Dude. You just brightened the crappiest day I have had for a long, long time. It confirms that sometimes you need not get all "Arty Farty" about stuff, just employ CONTEXT! Sweet. Oh but by the way, Hamlet is mis-quoted....deliberate? Discuss!! Hee hee...

[stephen symons]

I just watched a film I'd never heard of. Withnail & I. Does anybody here rate it? I certainly do.

Full of angst and very British.



Steve.

[Steve Crook]

(stephen symons @ May 7 2006, 09:37 PM)

I just watched a film I'd never heard of. Withnail & I. Does anybody here rate it? I certainly do.

Full of angst and very British.



Steve.

How have you managed to live your life so far without discovering Withnail & I

A true classic



Steve

[stephen symons]

(Steve Crook @ May 8 2006, 01:32 AM)

How have you managed to live your life so far without discovering Withnail & I

A true classic



Steve

I dont know LOL. I've never really been a die hard film buff, but still appreciate British films. Especially 70's ones. (Although I know Withnail & I is 80's)



Somehow this one has escaped me...

[Steve Crook]

(stephen symons @ May 8 2006, 01:42 AM)

I dont know LOL. I've never really been a die hard film buff, but still appreciate British films. Especially 70's ones. (Although I know Withnail & I is 80's)



Somehow this one has escaped me...

I'm tempted to ask which other classics you haven't seen. But there may well be others that you don't know about so you won't have seen those



Steve

[stephen symons]

(Steve Crook @ May 8 2006, 02:51 AM)

I'm tempted to ask which other classics you haven't seen. But there may well be others that you don't know about so you won't have seen those



Steve

In all honesty I'm sure there are hundreds I dont know about. As I said I'm not a massive film fan. However, I'm sure with a few recommendations I shall no longer be a film ignoramus LOL.



So.........recommend away!!! (especially 70's stuff)



Regards,

Steve.

[4737carlin]

Film director fights to keep 'Withnail & I' off the stage



full article



Film director fights to keep 'Withnail & I' off the stage

By Ciar Byrne, Media Correspondent

Published: 01 June 2006



For years, student union bars have resounded to such memorable lines as "I demand to have some booze" and "Officer, I've only had a few ales", as generations of students attempt to match the characters' prolific alcohol intake drink for drink.



But if the film's creator has its way, Withnail & I will never appear on the West End stage.



Bruce Robinson, the writer and director of the classic 1987 movie, starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann as two "resting" actors in 1969 London who take an alcohol-fuelled trip to the country, has described plans for a stage version, potentially starring Jude Law, as "scandalous".



He insists that Hand Made Films, the production company that made Withnail & I, needs his permission to go ahead with a theatrical production, which he refuses to grant. Hand Made Films, set up by George Harrison in the 1970s, maintains it owns the necessary rights to turn the film into a play.



"It's scandalous," said Robinson, who says he has still not received his full director's fee nearly 20 years after the film was made. "The film of Withnail & I that I wrote and directed is what I wanted to say. Anything ancillary to that seems to be an attempt to wring it out like an old teabag for more money."



A spokeswoman for Hand Made Films said: "Hand Made own the copyright and the rights to Withnail & I. Bruce Robinson, who was one of the writers, does not own the rights or the copyright. However, it is normal to seek creative approval from one of the writers, and that process is under way. Everything is on track."



Robinson said that at a meeting with his agent and lawyer in Los Angeles last week, Hand Made's chairman, Patrick Meehan, accepted that a stage production could not go ahead without the writer's agreement.



"He does not have the contractual rights to putWithnail & I on in the West End or the Outer Hebrides. He would have the right to put on the play in the West End providing he had my agreement, in the same way as I could put it on if I had his agreement."



Hand Made said nothing was settled at the meeting, adding that "lawyers and agents are working on it".



However, Robinson denied saying that Jude Law would not be able to do justice to the part of Withnail. "Whatever my feelings are about Jude Law, it's completely hypothetical, because this isn't going to happen. This chap Patrick Meehan can't put Withnail & I on the stage, period."



In contrast, Grant, who plays the film's louche hero Withnail, believes a stage production is a good idea. He said: "Good luck to them. I think the idea would transfer to the stage very well, and of course Bruce's original was such a brilliantly written script that I'm sure the part would be a success for anybody who tries it." In the movie, Withnail and his friend Peter Marwood, played by McGann, visits his lascivious Uncle Monty's country cottage with hilarious results. It is probably Grant's most memorable performance.



Details of the stage project, which were revealed in financial papers released by Hand Made Films as part of a reverse takeover bid, were revealed by The Independent last month. The "offer document" said Laurence Myers, the producer behind the acclaimed production of Keith Waterhouse's Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, would bring Withnail & I to the stage. It stated: "A UK theatrical show of Withnail has been agreed with the London producer Laurence Myers. Production is anticipated for 2007."



Robinson was originally offered £70,000 to direct the comedy he had written. But this upfront payment was cut to £40,000 in order to pay for one of the movie's classic scenes, in which Withnail and Marwood drive back from the country to London and are stopped by the police after partaking of "a few ales".



Where are they now?



Richard E Grant Withnail



Two years after Withnail & I, Grant starred as a stressed-out advertising executive in Bruce Robinson's How To Get Ahead In Advertising. Numerous television and film roles followed, and Grant's autobiographical film, Wah-Wah, which tells the story of his childhood in Swaziland, premiered in London this week.



Paul McGann Peter Marwood



McGann now lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. He appeared in a 1996 television movie revival of Doctor Who and was originally cast as Sharpe in the ITV series, but replaced by Sean Bean after breaking a leg. His latest film, the forthcoming Poppies, is about a man coming to terms with loss.



Richard Griffiths Monty



As Uncle Monty, Griffiths made a pass at a terrified Marwood, saying: "I mean to have you even if it must be burglary". More recently, he has played mean Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films, and is currently starring on Broadway as an eccentric teacher in the award-winning Alan Bennett play, The History Boys.



Ralph Brown Danny



As the drug-dealer Danny, Brown created the world's largest spliff, the Camberwell Carrot: "I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot." Since then, he has played the gangster Miami Vice in the television series based on Guy Ritchie's film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and has appeared in Coronation Street, Spooks and Nighty Night. In the forthcoming Straightheads, he appears alongside Gillian Anderson in a twisted tale of revenge.



For years, student union bars have resounded to such memorable lines as "I demand to have some booze" and "Officer, I've only had a few ales", as generations of students attempt to match the characters' prolific alcohol intake drink for drink.



But if the film's creator has its way, Withnail & I will never appear on the West End stage.



Bruce Robinson, the writer and director of the classic 1987 movie, starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann as two "resting" actors in 1969 London who take an alcohol-fuelled trip to the country, has described plans for a stage version, potentially starring Jude Law, as "scandalous".



He insists that Hand Made Films, the production company that made Withnail & I, needs his permission to go ahead with a theatrical production, which he refuses to grant. Hand Made Films, set up by George Harrison in the 1970s, maintains it owns the necessary rights to turn the film into a play.



"It's scandalous," said Robinson, who says he has still not received his full director's fee nearly 20 years after the film was made. "The film of Withnail & I that I wrote and directed is what I wanted to say. Anything ancillary to that seems to be an attempt to wring it out like an old teabag for more money."



A spokeswoman for Hand Made Films said: "Hand Made own the copyright and the rights to Withnail & I. Bruce Robinson, who was one of the writers, does not own the rights or the copyright. However, it is normal to seek creative approval from one of the writers, and that process is under way. Everything is on track."



Robinson said that at a meeting with his agent and lawyer in Los Angeles last week, Hand Made's chairman, Patrick Meehan, accepted that a stage production could not go ahead without the writer's agreement.



"He does not have the contractual rights to putWithnail & I on in the West End or the Outer Hebrides. He would have the right to put on the play in the West End providing he had my agreement, in the same way as I could put it on if I had his agreement."



Hand Made said nothing was settled at the meeting, adding that "lawyers and agents are working on it".



However, Robinson denied saying that Jude Law would not be able to do justice to the part of Withnail. "Whatever my feelings are about Jude Law, it's completely hypothetical, because this isn't going to happen. This chap Patrick Meehan can't put Withnail & I on the stage, period."



In contrast, Grant, who plays the film's louche hero Withnail, believes a stage production is a good idea. He said: "Good luck to them. I think the idea would transfer to the stage very well, and of course Bruce's original was such a brilliantly written script that I'm sure the part would be a success for anybody who tries it." In the movie, Withnail and his friend Peter Marwood, played by McGann, visits his lascivious Uncle Monty's country cottage with hilarious results. It is probably Grant's most memorable performance.



Details of the stage project, which were revealed in financial papers released by Hand Made Films as part of a reverse takeover bid, were revealed by The Independent last month. The "offer document" said Laurence Myers, the producer behind the acclaimed production of Keith Waterhouse's Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, would bring Withnail & I to the stage. It stated: "A UK theatrical show of Withnail has been agreed with the London producer Laurence Myers. Production is anticipated for 2007."



Robinson was originally offered £70,000 to direct the comedy he had written. But this upfront payment was cut to £40,000 in order to pay for one of the movie's classic scenes, in which Withnail and Marwood drive back from the country to London and are stopped by the police after partaking of "a few ales".



Where are they now?



Richard E Grant Withnail



Two years after Withnail & I, Grant starred as a stressed-out advertising executive in Bruce Robinson's How To Get Ahead In Advertising. Numerous television and film roles followed, and Grant's autobiographical film, Wah-Wah, which tells the story of his childhood in Swaziland, premiered in London this week.



Paul McGann Peter Marwood



McGann now lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. He appeared in a 1996 television movie revival of Doctor Who and was originally cast as Sharpe in the ITV series, but replaced by Sean Bean after breaking a leg. His latest film, the forthcoming Poppies, is about a man coming to terms with loss.



Richard Griffiths Monty



As Uncle Monty, Griffiths made a pass at a terrified Marwood, saying: "I mean to have you even if it must be burglary". More recently, he has played mean Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films, and is currently starring on Broadway as an eccentric teacher in the award-winning Alan Bennett play, The History Boys.



Ralph Brown Danny



As the drug-dealer Danny, Brown created the world's largest spliff, the Camberwell Carrot: "I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot." Since then, he has played the gangster Miami Vice in the television series based on Guy Ritchie's film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and has appeared in Coronation Street, Spooks and Nighty Night. In the forthcoming Straightheads, he appears alongside Gillian Anderson in a twisted tale of revenge

[DB7]

Cult classic: Withnail and us

Twenty years ago Bruce Robinson made an art house film that even its producers hated. Today the tale of excess and squalor is a cult classic. Liz Hoggard speaks to those who, against the odds, created the most quoted film ever

Published: 17 September 2006



It was made for £1.1m, the production company hated it and at the first screening nobody laughed. But Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I, now celebrating its 20th anniversary with the release of a special DVD, is now seen as one of the best British films with a cult male following that never flags. Fans still play the Withnail drinking game which consists of keeping up, drink for drink, with every substance consumed over the course of the film. They make drunken pilgrimages to its Lake District locations, and yell "Scrubbers!" at passing schoolgirls, just like Withnail in the film.



Made in 1986 and based on Robinson's 1960s novel, it's not surprising that a film about the end of adolescence should resonate with so many middle-aged men today. With its elegantly wasted heroes and revolting bachelor flat, it is the great hangover film encapsulating what many men look back on as the happiest time of their life - before marriage and children kicked in.



New teenage fans discover Withnail and I every year. It is the most requested movie at student film clubs, and many schools have special screenings. "Everyone at my school is obsessed by it at the moment," says Maxwell Benenson, 17. "Probably because we love the attitude of Withnail, this magnetic ex-public schoolboy we all aspire to be, with the long trench coat, the fag in one hand, and booze in the other."



The film not was an overnight success. In fact it was a very hard box office sell with its bunch of largely unknown actors and a first-time director. The production company that made it, George Harrison's HandMade Films, considered it "as funny as cancer". The finished film sat on a shelf for over a year. When HandMade was sold, a new distributor released it, but only at a handful of cinemas. Robinson remembers an awful test screening where nobody laughed: the audience was composed of German students.



Finally released in the UK in 1988, the film only played for a few weeks. In America it did better. But gradually Withnail and I was gaining word-of-mouth support among a cool, young audience who saw it at student film clubs and repertory cinemas.



Made at the height of Thatcherism, the story of two unemployed actors who take an alcohol-fuelled trip to the country struck a chord with anyone out of sync with its get-rich-quick ethos. Even so, Withnail and I seemed destined to remain an art-house favourite.



But in the first issue of Loaded magazine in 1994 the editor, James Brown, wrote an impassioned feature called "Withnail You Cult" with official instructions for the Withnail drinking game. The film was given a second cinema release in 1996 to celebrate its 10th anniversary, and a new male generation learnt "I demand to have some booze" and "We went on holiday by mistake".



Robinson's script is based on his experiences as a young actor in Camden "at the fag end of the 1960s". The soundtrack features Jimi Hendrix, King Curtis and the Beatles. Yet Withnail is timeless; Robinson deliberately avoids period trappings. The film appeals to men's vanity: they love to imagine themselves as Withnail's esoteric drunk-dropout delivering scorching put-downs. The rest of us see ourselves reflected in the character of Marwood, the timid, gauche narrator who finally quits a life of hedonism for a proper job and fantasises about what might have been.



And yet women love it, too, though there are no females in the film. Withnail and I are hardly macho characters. They spout poetry, share a bed in the country and never boast about their exploits with women. No wonder some critics regard it as an implicit gay love story.



For Robinson, the absence of women simply underlines the characters' hopelessness. "If you're in a state of emotional poverty when you're young, you can't afford girlfriends."



Daniel Day Lewis, Eddie Tudor-Pole and Bill Nighy were all considered for the Withnail role. Nighy did a good audition, said Robinson, but it was at the height of his drinking and the director - knocking back copious amounts himself - thought one drunk on set was enough.



Although he had only ever appeared in one small TV film, the struggling actor Richard E Grant made a huge impression on the filmmakers. Arriving soaked for his audition, hair swept back wildly, he launched into the "Fork it!" scene (where Withnail discovers "matter" in the festering sink), and accidentally hurled his script at Robinson's face. They had found their Withnail.



Grant's life changed overnight. But, as he movingly documents in his film diaries, With Nails, the film also coincided with a time of great tragedy in his life. His wife, seven months pregnant, had a still-born child. There was little time to grieve. Less than a fortnight later, he was in front of the camera. And Grant is nothing like Withnail. When Loaded turned up to interview him in 1996 they were astonished to find that he is a life-long non-smoker and teetotaller.



"I know Richard admits that he thinks it's been the greatest blessing ever, but sometimes a little bit of the curse," says Paul McGann, who played Marwood, "in that every time he's performed afterwards, people have wanted that same thing. It was easier for me, probably because the character I played - the straight role - was less flamboyant. It never dogged me, not like it dogged him."



Part of the cult of Withnail is working out how much is fact, and how much fiction. The "I" of the film is Robinson himself, while Withnail is based on his actor friend Vivian MacKerrell, who died young of throat cancer. The two shared a house in Camden. Danny the hippy is an amalgam of two hairdressers Robinson knew. Uncle Monty is based on the unwanted attentions Robinson received from the director, Franco Zeffirelli, when he was a young actor on the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet.



It shouldn't be forgotten that Withnail is a classic British disaster story. When he first directed it, Robinson was flushed with success having written the Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Killing Fields (1984). George Harrison read his Withnail script on a plane and loved it. But the money men at HandMade turned his life into a nightmare



Although it has made a fortune all over the world for the distributors, the original cast and crew have never benefited from its re-releases. Even though Robinson received £1 for the script and £80,000 to direct it (£30,000 of which he reinvested in the film to shoot key scenes that HandMade wouldn't fund), he never got his money back - particularly painful when it was his life story. He is still ambivalent about the film, although he has been persuaded to contribute a new interview to the DVD.



The film is also dark. Not only is there is a strong sense that all the characters fear change, but Withnail marks the passing of the golden age of the 1960s.



And, of course, says McGann, Withnail and I are over. "It's very bitter-sweet, this odd couple is running down, it isn't the Swinging Sixties, it's right, right at the end. And you know that one of these people might be OK, the other one might not, but progress of a sort has been made. There's a scene at the cottage where my character gets a postcard saying he's got a job, and within 20 minutes everything starts to accelerate back to London. But it's been over, it's being played out, all the way through."



The film has always appealed to the cool crowd because of its visuals. Ralph Steadman created the poster art: its grubby-chic costumes the work of Andrea Galer. Withnail's coat - a sweeping cloak of soft Harris tweed - is one of those screen garments up there with Judy Garland's ruby slippers.



In 2000, Grant held a charity auction of Withnail memorabilia to raise funds for his old school in Swaziland. The writer and film director Richard Curtis bought the manuscript of the original Withnail novel for £6,600 (which he returned to Robinson with the note, "I think you should keep this"). Chris Evans snapped up the Withnail coat for £5,000. And there are rumours of a West End production next year but Robinson has not given permission.



Robinson thinks the Withnail phenomenon stems from our love of looking back on the worst of times, secure in the knowledge that life does get better. "Perhaps it's easy to identify with if you're a 21-year-old male with not much money and living in squalor, which is what you tend to do at that age, because it isn't pulling punches or being condescending to that life. Also it can be said, '20 years later Bruce Robinson made a film about it, so it may be awful now, but it won't be awful later'."



The 20th anniversary edition of 'Withnail and I' is released on DVD on 2 October



THE KEY PLAYERS



Bruce Robinson (writer/director)



Went on to direct How to Get Ahead in Advertising and Jennifer Eight and write scripts for Hollywood. In 1998, disillusioned by the business, Robinson wrote an autobiographical novel, The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman (effectively the early life of Withnail's 'I'). Slated to direct a film version of Hunter S Thompson's The Rum Diary.



Says: "I'm immensely fond of Withnail and I, but one of the reasons I don't like having a lot to do with it is that I'm so angry with the people that own it [Handmade Films]."



Richard E Grant (Withnail)



Starred in Bruce Robinson's follow-up to Withnail and I, How to Get Ahead In Advertising, then worked with Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Recently directed his first film, Wah-Wah, about his childhood in Swaziland.



Says: "Bruce Robinson described this character as a lying, mendacious, cowardly, prancing, posing, utterly charming old darling - so you go home with that and think how do I fit all that into saying one line?"



Paul McGann (Marwood/I)



Went on to star in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of DH Lawrence's The Rainbow and Empire of the Sun. Now more famous for his TV work which has included Hornblower and a small screen Dr Who movie, although he will soon star in British film Gypo about asylum seekers. Says: "Marwood was that little grain of sand, that little portion of your sense that gets you home when you're out of your head."



Ralph Brown (Danny, the drug dealer)



Other roles have included playing in The Crying Game, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Wayne's World 2. Last year he appeared in Coronation Street and also acted alongside Julia Davis in the dark BBC hit comedy Nighty Night.



Says: "There isn't a crap bit in it; there isn't a bad moment. It's a lesson to all film-makers everywhere that you don't need a good plot."



Michael Elphick (Jake, the poacher)



Elphick's televsion roles include those in Private Schulz and the long-running ITV detective drama series Boon. After illness brought on by his on-off battle with alcohol, Elphick's last major role before his death in 2002, aged 55, was as Harry Slater in EastEnders. He also had a small part in the 2001 movie Dead in the Water. Elphick knew Bruce Robinson from London's Central School of drama where they were both students.



Richard Griffiths (Uncle Monty)



Perhaps best known for his roles as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films and the chef Henry Crabbe in the TV series Pie In The Sky. An acclaimed stage actor, he won a Tony Award this year for his role in Alan Bennett's The History Boys, which is now also a forthcoming film.



Anthony Barnes

[fred kite]

withnail and i is brilliant,richard griffiths is superb ........if you buy the dvd some of the gaffs are metioned in the voice overs paul mcgann and danny......a fantastic dvd package. .................................................. .................................................. .............................."stan ...mmm......are those your own teeth ?"

[thirdlady]

I've never seen it

[MarcMorris]

You should definitely go pre-order the 3 disc anniversary edition that's due out 2 October.

[thirdlady]

You should definitely go pre-order the 3 disc anniversary edition that's due out 2 October.

Thanks I think I will!



Will I be to buy it in the shops?