Britannia Hospital *** (1982, Leonard Rossiter, Graham Crowden, Malcolm McDowell, Arthur Lowe, Joan Plowright, Peter Jeffrey, Alan Bates) – Classic Movie Review 5040

The 1982 box-office flop satirical black comedy Britannia Hospital about a beleaguered, crumbling British hospital beset with strikes, demos, a mad doctor, a cannibalistic dictator and a visit by Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother to open a new wing is the film that set back and damaged Lindsay Anderson’s career in the cinema.

It did not exactly help its production company and distributors EMI Films much either. Costing either $2.5 million or $4 million, it earned only $375,71 at the box office. As a follow-up to Anderson’s triumphs If… (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973), it must count as the third and last part of a loose trilogy. It falls a long way short of its predecessors.

For the third time (after If… and O Lucky Man!), Malcolm McDowell plays Mick Travis, who is now a muckraking TV reporter making a documentary film about the deficiencies of Britannia Hospital, whose problems all too evidently mirror those of British society, and investigating the bizarre activities of the head of the new wing, Professor Millar (Graham Crowden), with whom he had a run-in in O Lucky Man!.

Just as the Queen Mother – referred to as HRH – is due to arrive to open the new wing, Potter (Leonard Rossiter), the administrator of the hospital, is confronted with demonstrators protesting against an African dictator who is a VIP patient, as well as striking ancillary workers.

Lindsay Anderson said: ‘The absurdities of human behaviour as we move into the 21st century are too extreme – and too dangerous – to permit us the luxury of sentimentalism or tears. But by looking at humanity objectively and without indulgence, we may hope to save it. Laughter can help.’

The screenplay by If…’s screen-writer David Sherwin is coarse, obvious and familiar feeling, instead of truly funny and challenging. The central image of Britain as a sick hospital had already been used better by Peter Nichols in the play and film The National Health (1973). However, that is balanced in Britannia Hospital by plenty of entertaining scenes and amusing lines.

But the most valuable item here is the appearance of Anderson’s treasurable repertoire company of old friends and colleagues (among them Arthur Lowe, Graham Crowden, Joan Plowright, Peter Jeffrey, Leonard Rossiter, Alan Bates, Marsha Hunt, Dandy Nichols, Frank Grimes, Jill Bennett, Robin Askwith, John Bett, Fulton Mackay, John Moffatt, Brian Pettifer, Vivian Pickles, Marcus Powell, Barbara Hicks, Mark Hamill, Peter Machin, Kevin Lloyd, Edward Hibbert and Dave Atkins) – all working hard and enjoyably.

The film was released in the UK on 27 May 1982 and had the misfortune to come out in Britain just as the Falklands War was starting, so it was perceived as unpatriotic and was shunned, spelling box-office disaster. However, it turned out that the Falklands War was the disaster, and not the film, which now deserves reappraisal.

Filming started in August 1981 at Shepperton Studios and took 12 weeks, using Friern Hospital in Barnet as the exterior of the hospital in October 1981.

Anderson said his film originated in 1975 with a newspaper story about the Siege of Charing Cross Hospital, when there was a big demonstration against fee-paying private patients led by a union official. ‘This struck me as absurd. If you stand outside a hospital and stop ambulances going in you are involved in a wonderfully absurd paradox.’

Also in the cast are Mark Hamill, Gladys Crosbie, Rufus Collins, Ram John Holder, Jim Findley, Pauline Melville, Robert Pugh, Robbie Coltrane, Glenn Williams, Brian Glover, Mike Grady, Tony Haygarth, Jagdish Kumar, Patrick Durkin, Richard Griffiths, Dave Hill, Charmain May, Valentine Dyall, Roland Culver, Betty Marsden, Adele Strong, Ted Burnett, Gabrielle Lloyd, Barbara Flynn, Val Pringle, Robert Lee, Errol Shaker, Alan Penn, Liz Smith, Robin Davies, John Gordon Sinclaur, Paul McCleary, Paul Pember, Bob Hornery, Jane Stonehouse, Patricia Healy, Rosemary Martin, Robert Owen, Ellis Dale, Maggie Ollerenshaw, Elizabeth Bennett, Patsy Byrne, Brenda Cavendish, Edward Peel, T P McKenna, Michael Medwin, Peter Holmes, Salmaan Peer, Janette Foggo, Cora Kinnaird, and George Savvides who appears in about five roles including as Demonstrator.

Britannia Hospital is directed by Lindsay Anderson, runs 116 minutes, is made by EMI Films, British Lion Film Corporation, Film and General Productions and National Film Finance Corporation, is released by Columbia-EMI-Warner (1982) (UK) and United Artists Classics (1983) (US), is shot in Technicolor by Mike Fash, is produced by Mamoun Hassan (executive producer), Davina Belling and Clive Parsons and is scored by Alan Price, with Production Design by Norris Spencer. Other crew include Ted Craig as assistant to director.

A sparkling 4K print on Blu Ray is now available in 2020 which shows how good the film looks and includes some terrific extras, including an audio interview with Anderson, separate new interviews with actors Brian Pettifer and Robin Askwith, an interview with film editor Michael Ellis and theatrical trailers.

McDowell did the film just for his expenses and so did Mark Hamill when original choice Treat Williams left.

It is the final film appearance of Arthur Lowe, who died soon after his scenes were filmed.

Robin Askwith made his film debut as Keating: Seniors in If… (1968) and plays Ben Keating: The Unions here.

Lindsay Anderson (1923–1994). His conclusion is: ‘The film ends with a question mark, not a solution, and people don’t like that. They want to be let off the hook, and this film impales the audience on rather a large hook. I think that if we are going to find solutions, we’re not going to get any help from God, or any pre-sold political notions. The big question remains whether we are good enough or intelligent enough to survive.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5040

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