Retired Welsh friends drunk-dial their past selves and regret everything.
An adaptation of the novel by Kingsley Amis about a group of university friends reunited in retirement. Alun Weaver has found success as a celebrated London-based writer. After returning home to Wales with his alluring wife Rhiannon he reunites with old friends who chose to remain in the valleys. Long dormant romance are rekindled and rivalries resurrected in this turbulent story of ageing, friendship, lust, nostalgia and nationalism.
Acting
John Stride's magnificent bastard energy as the celebrated fraud Alun.
Writing
Amis's dialogue cuts like a pub glass to the heart.
Director
Tristram Powell
John Stride
Alun Weaver
Ray Smith
Charlie Norris
Elizabeth Morgan
Sophie Norris
James Grout
Peter Thomas
Anne Stallybrass
Muriel Thomas
Bernard Hepton
Malcolm Cellan-Davies
Anna Cropper
Gwen Cellan-Davies
Elizabeth Spriggs
Dorothy Morgan
Gerald James
Percy Morgan
Desmond Barrit
Tarquin Jones
Howell Evans
Gareth Pumphrey
Pippa Guard
Rosemary Weaver
Tristram Jellinek
Victor Norris
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1986 novel won the Booker Prize; Amis famously hated the BBC adaptation, calling it 'wretched' before he'd even seen it.
Filmed largely in Laugharne, Dylan Thomas's old haunt—a sly nod since Alun is essentially a diminished, surviving version of that mythic Welsh poet.
US
