''Home Sweet Home'' is a 1982 television film devised and directed by

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Des ...

, for the BBC, 'about postmen, parenthood, social workers and sex.' It was Leigh's second collaboration with ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stag ...

'' producer

Louis Marks Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ...

, and cinematographer Remi Adefarasin, (after '' Grown-Ups''), and with composer Carl Davis – the musical score featured a quartet of basses – (Davis had also provided the music for 1977s '' The Kiss of Death''). It stars

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' ...

(working with Leigh for the first time),

Eric Richard Eric Richard (born Eric Smith, 27 June 1940) is an English actor and presenter. His theatre work includes plays at the Royal Court Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, as well as seasons with the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Birmingham ...

, Tim Barker,

Kay Stonham Kay Stonham is a British actress, writer and academic. Background Stonham attended William Morris Senior High School in Walthamstow, East London, leaving in 1974. She then graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1977. Stonham has a master's degr ...

Su Elliot Su Elliott (born 18 December 1950) is a British actress. She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. Her film roles include Alice in '' The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1984), a nurse in '' The Girl in a Swing'' (1988), ...

Frances Barber Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays '' Camille'' (1985), and ''Uncle Vanya'' (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with Gar ...

, Sheila Kelley, and Lorraine Brunning. It was first broadcast on 16 March 1982. The film was shot on location in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gover ...

and has a 90 minutes duration.

Synopsis

The story of three postmen; "Gordon Leach (Timothy Spall), a slothful couch potato who is in permanent dispute with his svelte wife Hazel (Kay Stonham), who has lost four stone," and who "is offering to entertain ... postman Stan (Eric Richard), when his shifts don't coincide with Gordon's." "Stan's wife ran off with another man when their daughter, Tina, was six. She is now fourteen. As the film progresses, Stan and his domestic arrangements assume a pivotal importance." The third postman Harold Fish (Tim Barker) and his wife June (Su Elliott), have a dead marriage. Stan is having an affair with June Fish.

Critical reception

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...

'', praised Leigh's film: "The gripping story of three postmen and how practically nothing happened to them,..if you can imagine '' Cosi fan tutte'' with the music taken out, and then with the words taken out, and then with all the decor and costumes replaced by the tackiest fabrics and furniture known to mortal man, you've got a movie by Mike Leigh. That there should be two such original artists as him and Bill Forsyth loose in Britain at the same time is a remarkable thing." The playwright David Edgar was critical, and wondered about Leigh's methods, and techniques, which produced "work of extraordinary, naturalistic perception; but it also appears to produce an attitude to the character of little more than rank contempt."

, (whose father was a postman, and thought the film 'pretty accurate') has said: "If you were to tell me you think Mike's patronising, I'd accuse him of the dead opposite: of elevating, and of making amusing and tragic, what most people in life go through."Coveney, p160, 163-164

References

External links

*
''Home Sweet Home'' at BFI Screenonline
{{Play for Today 1982 television plays British television films Films directed by Mike Leigh Films scored by Carl Davis