'Nuts in May'
- Episode aired Jan 13, 1976
- 1h 21m
A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe registration number of the Morris Minor has the letters "BY". Really used by the Croydon vehicle registration office in the days before regionalisation.
- GoofsWhen Keith stops the car to give Ray a lift it is pouring with rain, yet when they start driving the wipers are wiping a dry windscreen.
- Quotes
[Keith and Candice Marie are perched next to Corfe Castle, surveying the surrounding countryside]
Keith: Look at this view, Brownsea Island, Round Island, the Lakeland of Dorset... pity about the power station in the background, never mind... there are the heaths, Newton Heath, Rempstone Heath, Witch Heath... disused railway line going up to Wareham... and the great nimbocumulus rising above it all like great puffs of cotton wool.
Candice Marie: Look at all this rubbish Keith.
Keith: What?
Candice Marie: Isn't it awful, look at all those tin cans.
Keith: [disinterested] Yes...
Candice Marie: Just imagine Keith, if all the people who lived here could come back... to all these crisp bags and sweet papers, they'd be horrified wouldn't they?
Keith: They'd find it difficult to comprehend all the changes that have taken place in the world.
Candice Marie: Do you think they do come back Keith?
Keith: What?
Candice Marie: Their ghosts.
Keith: No...
[Keith is distracted momentarily by something in the distance]
Keith: There's a car going up the B3351.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Arena: Mike Leigh Making Plays (1982)
Other reviewers have rightly pointed out that very little actually happens: it's just an English couple on a camping trip in the 1970s. But that analysis is to ignore the genius at work in the writing, and the acting of the two leads. Every frame, every line, every gesture is filled with humour and pathos - if you're prepared to look for it.
Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman are just sublime in their portrayal of the new-age suburban middle class couple. We scorn them, we pity them, we recognise them and we like them (albeit we wouldn't want to spend much time with them).
For me, the other characters - though necessary for the 'plot,' are less well-drawn. But the two leads are on screen so constantly it barely matters.
There's not much else to say, really. You just have to watch it. A warning though: once discovered, this is the sort of film you want to watch again and again. The dilemma is how you strike the balance between savouring it regularly without getting to know it too well.... I think the important thing is to use your discretion.
- tohu
- Mar 25, 2011