Meantime **** (1983, Marion Bailey, Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Pam Ferris, Alfred Molina, Gary Oldman, Jeffrey Robert) – Classic Movie Review 13,277

Mike Leigh’s brilliant 1983 British comedy-drama TV film Meantime stars Marion Bailey, Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Pam Ferris, Alfred Molina and Gary Oldman.

Writer/ director Mike Leigh’s 1983 British comedy-drama TV film Meantime is produced by Central Television for Channel 4, and stars Marion Bailey, Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Pam Ferris, Alfred Molina and Gary Oldman. It was shown in 1983 at the London Film Festival and on Channel 4 (1 December 1983) and at the 1984 Berlin International Film Festival.

Meantime is one of Leigh’s best, most typical, most brilliant films, taking us back to the horrible early Eighties, and capturing the zeitgeist, with a biting script and tremendous performances from a now iconic cast. Didn’t Leigh do well choosing his actors?

This is what London looked and sounded like in 1983. It’s a perfect snapshot. It works in TV style as a series of fairly short dialogue-led episodes, all of them entertaining, impactful and revealing, rather than a story with a conclusion. That’s kind of an actor’s dream, and these are dream actors.

The working-class Pollock family, who live in a tower block in the East End of London, are struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The nagging  mother Mavis (Pam Ferris) is working, but the bitter father Frank (Jeffrey Robert) and the sons, shy Colin (Tim Roth) and outspoken Mark (Phil Daniels) are on the dole. Meanwhile, Mavis’s sister Barbara (Marion Bailey) and her husband John (Alfred Molina) live comfortably in a lacklustre marriage in suburban Chigwell.

Barbara offers Colin a job redecorating her home, but jealous Mark turns up and Colin refuses to work and leaves.

Meantime is Gary Oldman’s second film. In 1982 Oldman made his film debut in Colin Gregg’s Remembrance. The following year, he landed a starring role as a skinhead in Meantime.

The cast are Marion Bailey as Barbara, Phil Daniels as Mark, Tim Roth as Colin, Pam Ferris as Mavis, Jeffrey Robert as Frank, Alfred Molina as John, Gary Oldman as Coxy, Tilly Vosburgh as Hayley, Peter Wight as Estate Manager, Eileen Davies as Unemployment Benefit Clerk, and Herbert Norville as Man in Pub.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,277

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