Separate Tables *** (1983, Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Claire Bloom, Irene Worth) – Classic Movie Review 5971

Director John Schlesinger’s 1983 Home Box Office TV movie is a particularly well cast, carefully handled and subtly performed remake of the Terence Rattigan twin one-act plays, with a faithful script based on his 1954 play.

Playing true to Rattigan’s original intention, it is much more of a recording of the plays than the 1958 Hollywood film of Separate Tables, with Julie Christie and Alan Bates playing the twin roles as written as the two couples, Mrs Shankland and Miss Railton-Bell, and Mr Martin and Major Pollock. Rich, detailed and enjoyable though it is, it is surprisingly creakier and more stagey than the 1958 movie, even under Schlesinger’s painstaking direction.

However, the four principals – Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Claire Bloom as Miss Cooper and Irene Worth as Mrs Railton-Bell – are pretty well near perfect — and it is a great showcase for their superb special talents.

Also in the cast are Liz Smith,  Bernard Archard, Brian Deacon, Kathy Staff, Sylvia Barter, Susannah Fellows and Chrissie Cotterill.

The two stories are set 18 months apart in the Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, England. Table by the Window focuses on the troubled relationship between a disgraced Labour politician and his ex-wife. Table Number Seven focuses on the friendship between a repressed spinster and a kindly man posing as an upper-class retired army officer, Major Pollock.

It is produced by Ely A Landau and Edie Landau for HTV and Home Box Office.