Spring and Port Wine

James Mason - Rafe Crompton
Susan George - Hilda Crompton
Diana Coupland - Daisy Crompton
Hannah Gordon - Florence Crompton
Rodney Bewes - Harold Crompton
Len Jones - Wilfred Crompton
Keith Buckley - Arthur Gasket
Frank Windsor - Ned Duckworth
Christophe Timothyr - Joe
Arthur Lowe - Mr. Aspinall

Peter Hammond’s compelling and gently humorous portrayal charting one working-class Lancashire family's struggle to wrest power from their tyrannically strict patriarch in a changing society. Adapted by Bill Naughton from his 1957 play My Flesh, My Blood.

The head of Bolton’s Crompton household is their bible-thumping father, Rafe (James Mason), who works in the local cotton mill and rules his timid wife (Diana Coupland) and children with a rod of iron. When his spirited daughter, Hilda (Susan George), finally tires of the constant diet of herring and refuses to eat a piece at the dinner table, her furious father is gripped by pigheadedness and continues to serve it up daily. When Hilda stubbornly refuses to give in to her father’s authoritarian tactics, Rafe discovers his carefully orchestrated family life falling apart as his elder daughter Florence (Hannah Gordon) finds love, Hilda moves in with the neighbours and the rest gently rebel. By the films closure, the family impasse has been resolved and Rafe has demonstrated he’s more than an overbearing father.