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The Norman Conquests
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| The Norman Conquests is a 1978 romantic title. It stars Richard Briers & Tom Conti. |
The premise is simple. Incurable romantic Norman has arrived to take his spinstery sister-in-law Annie away for a dirty weekend . Her mixed feelings about the prospective affair are complicated by the arrival of her brother Reg & his wife Sarah, not to mention the lurking on the fringes of a dim would-be suitor, a vet named Tom. All thats missing is Normans wife Ruth, who duly arrives.
The weekend is enacted in three plays, each taking place in a different part of the house - the dining room, the living room, & the garden. Each play could stand on its own but all three together give the complete picture. An exit from one play is often an entrance into another. For instance, during a conversation between Annie & Tom in one play, Reg suddenly enters, looks around, picks up a wastepaper basket & walks out again. It seems no make no sense. But in another play, Regs wife is dying to know what is going on between Annie & Tom & sends Reg in to investigate. Reluctant & embarrassed, all he can think to do is pick up the basket & beat a hasty retreat. Its a tribute to Alan Ayckbourns writing that what could have been so complicated works as smoothly - & as entertainingly - as it does.
But its the performances that really make The Norman Conquests. Richard Briers & Penelope Keith as Reg & Sarah are fantastic as the sort of married couple we have all encountered & dread becoming. Penelope Wilton as Annie is touching & frail, but with the capacity to unleash fire & passion suddenly & unexpectedly. David Troughton is delightful as the dim-witted Tom, permanently confused but with his heart in the right place. Fiona Walkers Ruth is hard as nails, dripping with equal measures of sarcasm & exasperation. And holding it all together - or scattering sanity to the winds - is Tom Conti as Norman, a shuffling haystack of a creature, full of charm & poetic lust - as unreliable as he is irresistible.
These plays have been off our screens for far too long. Its wonderful to have them again - grab them quick before somebody changes their mind & withdraws them!
Richard Briers is a British actor, chiefly associated with sitcom. Born in Surrey, he first came to public attention in comedy series such as Brothers in Law & Marriage Lines. From then on, he was a great favourite with the television-viewing public, his image being that of a nice clean-cut young man. In the long-running The Good Life, one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time, Briers played Tom Good, a businessman who decides to opt out of the rat race & go in for self-sufficiency, with the support of his long-suffering wife. It was difficult for him to follow the great success of the series, but to some extent he managed this with Ever Decreasing Circles, in which he showed himself to have some versatility by playing a less likeable character. Subsequently, Briers branched out into serious acting & has appeared in films such as Henry V & Much Ado About Nothing. His most recent success was in the semi-comic role of Sir Hector in the BBC One drama series, Monarch of the Glen.
Posters Of Twelfth NightEditors Choice: Much Ado About Nothing, Ever Decreasing Circles, Twelfth Night, The Good Life, The Norman Conquests, Watership Down, Roobarb And Custard, Peter And The Wolf, View DVDology
Tom Conti is a Scottish actor. His dark good looks, inherited from his Italian father, have made him much in demand for playing Mediterranean types. Born in Paisley, Scotland, Conti is mostly known for his stage work. He won the Tony Award in 1979 for Whose Life is it Anyway?. But he is also an accomplished film & television actor. Besides taking the leading role in the 1978 TV version of Alan Ayckbourn s Norman Conquests, he played opposite Nigel Hawthorne in a long-running series of car advertisements. He has appeared in such films as Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Reuben, Reuben, American Dreamer, Shirley Valentine & Saving Grace. He is married to Scottish actress, Kara Wilson.
Posters Of Madame BovaryEditors Choice: When The Pipers Play, Out Of Control, Shirley Valentine, American Dreamer, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, The Norman Conquests, Madame Bovary, View DVDology