Peter's Friends

Hugh Laurie - Roger Charleston
Kenneth Branagh - Andrew Benson
Stephen Fry - Peter Morton
Alphonsia Emmanuel - Sarah Johnson
Emma Thompson - Maggie Chester
Imelda Staunton - Mary Charleston
Richard Briers - Lord Morton
Rita Rudner - Carol Benson
Ann Davies - Brenda
Tony Slattery - Brian

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Peter’s Friends is a flawed attempt to craft a British version of Lawrence Kasdan’s excellent college-reunion comedy The Big Chill. Branagh also co-stars alongside and an ensemble cast of Oxbridge luvvies, including Hugh Laurie, bookish bachelor girl Emma Thompson and a delightfully melancholic Stephen Fry. The poignant script written by US comedienne Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergmanis is sporadically witty, but the tone is smug and stilted.

Ten years after graduating from university, Peter and his old Cambridge Footlights friends reunite at his recently inherited country estate for a New Year's party to mark the troupe’s shambolic final music review. Having weathered most of life's triumphs and disasters, there doesn't seem to be much left to shock them. During the subsequent party, estranged couples bond, lovers split and the New Year celebrations go with a bang as a Peter’s closely guarded secret comes to light.