''A Summer Story'' is a 1988 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Piers Haggard Piers Inigo Haggard, OBE (18 March 1939 – 11 January 2023) was a British director who worked in film, television, and theatre. Early life A member of the Haggard family, he was born in London, the son of Morna Gillespie and the actor, poet ...

and written by

Penelope Mortimer Penelope Ruth Mortimer (née Fletcher; 19 September 1918 – 19 October 1999) was a Welsh-born English journalist, biographer, and novelist. Her semi-autobiographical novel '' The Pumpkin Eater'' (1962) was made into a 1964 film of the same nam ...

, based on

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...

’s 1916 short story "

The Apple Tree ''The Apple Tree'' is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith. Each act has its own storyline, but all three are tied tog ...

". Starring

James Wilby James Jonathon Wilby (born 20 February 1958) is an English actor. Early life and education Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Terrington Hall and Sedbergh School, studied for a degree in M ...

Imogen Stubbs Imogen Stubbs (born 20 February 1961) is an English actress and writer. Her first leading part was in '' Privileged'' (1982), followed by '' A Summer Story'' (1988). Her first play, ''We Happy Few'', was produced in 2004. In 2008 she joined ' ...

and

Susannah York Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939 – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including '' Tom Jones'' (1963) and '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' ...

, the plot takes place in 1902 and 1920, wherein a young gentleman visiting a rural area had an intense love affair with a village girl. Eighteen years later, he is passing that way again.

Plot

In the summer of 1902, Frank Ashton, an educated young barrister from London, is on a walking holiday in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

with a friend. When he falls and twists his ankle, Ashton is helped at a nearby farmhouse in

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

and stays there for a few days to recover, while his friend goes on. During his stay, he quickly falls for the village girl who looks after him, Megan David. Joe Narracombe, Megan's cousin who is wary of refined men like Ashton, wants Megan for himself. Ashton, seeking ways to get close to Megan, goes to the local

sheep shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the Wool, woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a ''Sheep shearer, shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (depending upon dialect, ...

festivities and learns to sheer his first sheep. That night, Megan professes she returns Ashton's feelings and they consummate their relationship. After a fight with Joe over Megan, Ashton leaves the farm and makes arrangements to meet again with her. He takes the train to the seaside resort town of

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

to cash a cheque at a bank, after promising to return the next morning and take Megan away with him and marry her. On arrival in the town, Ashton finds a branch of his bank, but it will not cash his cheque, insisting on first contacting his branch in London. Ashton agrees to wait in town until the bank can be contacted. While walking around, Ashton runs into Halliday, an old school friend staying at a local hotel with his three sisters. The eldest of Halliday's sisters, Stella, takes a liking to Ashton. Thanks to the bank's delays, Ashton misses the train he needed to make his rendezvous with Megan. When Halliday asks why Ashton is so anxious, Ashton tells him about Megan and how he can't live without her. Halliday cautions Ashton against rash decisions when it comes to love, warning him that he is getting caught up in the idealism of romance rather than reality, including the fact that he would be uprooting Megan from the only home she knows. The following day, Ashton spends more time with Halliday and his sisters. Stella flirts with him, suggesting his missed train must have been due to fate. He begins to have second thoughts about marrying Megan. Back in Dartmoor, Megan holds onto the hope that Ashton will return for her and she goes to wait at a rendezvous spot they had agreed upon. After hours of waiting for him with no success, she decides to travel to Torquay to look for Ashton. While talking with Stella on the beach, Ashton suddenly sees Megan walking amongst the crowds. He makes up a ruse to send Stella back to the hotel, then follows the unsuspecting Megan. He trails her down a street, nearly catching up to her. Right as she is about to turn around, she almost catches a glimpse of Ashton, but he hides behind a building until she is gone. Eighteen years later, Ashton is married to Stella and they are motoring through Devon. They have no children. Ashton visits the farm where he seduced Megan and is greeted by Jim, a farm hand he befriended long ago. Ashton learns that Megan returned to Dartmoor heartbroken about losing him. She died soon after giving birth to a son, whom she named "Francis," or Frank. Ashton is taken to see Megan's grave, which is at the spot where they had first met. She had asked to be buried there, to wait for his return. As he motors away with Stella, Ashton passes by a young man who is herding sheep. The man gives a friendly smile to Ashton, and as he leaves, he realizes it is Megan's son Frank.

Cast

as Frank Ashton *

as Megan David *

as Mrs. Narracombe *

Kenneth Colley Kenneth Colley (born 7 December 1937) is an English film and television actor whose career spans over 60 years. He came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in the ''Star Wars'' films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ''R ...

as Jim *

Jerome Flynn Jerome Patrick Flynn (born 16 March 1963) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Bronn in the HBO fantasy series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–19). His other roles include Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the IT ...

as Joe Narracombe * Lee Billett as Nick * Oliver Perry as Rick * Harry Burton as Garton *

Sophie Ward Sophie Anna Ward (born 30 December 1964) is a British stage and screen actress, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction from London. As an actress, she played Jocelyn Sheffield in '' The Nanny''; she also played Elizabeth Hardy, the female l ...

as Stella Halliday * John Elmes as Mr. Halliday *

Camilla Power Camilla Joy Cynthia Power (born 13 November 1976) is an Irish-born English actress. She is best known for her appearances in the television series ''Emmerdale'' and '' Waterloo Road''. Early life and education Power was born in Cork, Ireland, a ...

as Sabina Halliday * Juliette Fleming as Freda Halliday *

Sukie Smith Sukie Smith (born 23 September 1964) is a British actress and musician. Her credits include the role of Rachel Branning in ''EastEnders'' in 2006, as well as appearances in '' Peak Practice'' and '' Doctors''. She also appeared in several fil ...

as Betsy *

John Savident John Frederick Joseph Savident (21 January 1938 – 21 February 2024) was a British actor, known for his numerous television roles, including his portrayal of Fred Elliott in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' from 1994 to 2006. He was also ...

as Bank Clerk * Rachel Joyce as Post Office Girl * Patrick Morris as Pierrot 1 * Paul Allain as Pierrot 2 * Christopher Majeika as Pierrot 3 * James Wilson as Pierrot 4 * Perry Cree as Pierrot 5

Production

In 1946,

Jesse L. Lasky Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr. Early life Born in to ...

announced he would make a film of the story from a script by DeWitt Bodeen at

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

, but nothing came of it. In 1969, Kenneth Hyman said he wanted to make his directorial debut with a film version of the story, which would be made for under $800,000, but again no movie resulted. In 1971

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...

said he had wanted to make a film of the story "since he was about 16", but wanted to change the setting to Maine. In 1987, production was at last funded, based on a script by

, and

were cast in the leading roles. Despite being set on

, the rural scenes were mostly filmed on

Exmoor Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

, specifically at Lyncombe Farm. Other scenes were filmed in Exeter, Dartmouth, and Sidmouth.

had written the film script long before, in the 1960s, when she was working as a screenwriter. "I took the money and ran and totally forgot about it," she said in 1988. "I couldn't remember a thing about it", adding that "the last apple got written out f the scripta week before shooting - it was the wrong time of year." She made some changes to the original story, including adding a sheep-shearing party ("I thought, something has to happen", Mortimer commented), and the producers decided that Megan and Frank needed to make love, resulting in Megan having a son. "I don't know what Galsworthy would have thought", said Mortimer. "I was terribly anxious that the couple should never have it off. But oh no they had to have all those muscles writhing in the moonlight." Mortimer called the character of Frank Ashton "very much a Galsworthy character, someone with the guilt of not living up to his own expectations. Such a bastard but with the best gentlemanly motives... such a

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

. I'm sure there are still plenty of young men with their BMWs who act much the same way." She said the character of Megan was "a bit of a hoyden... pretty amoral really but with a lot of guts. And Imogen Stubbs... is sensational."

Critical reception

Critics lauded the film's cast and the scenery, but criticized the screenplay as wading into

tearjerker Tearjerker is something that provokes sadness or pathos, as the name suggests. Tearjerker may refer to: * "Tearjerker" (''American Dad!''), a 2008 episode of ''American Dad!'' * "Tearjerker" (song), a 1995 song by Red Hot Chili Peppers * "Tearje ...

territory. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film a "beautifully made pastoral romance", and commented, "Stage actress Stubbs is a real find as the heartbroken heroine, bringing a modern strength to the period role, while Wilby is a sympathetic version of the archetypal weak young aristocrat."

Sheila Benson Sheila Benson (December 4, 1930February 23, 2022) was an American journalist and film critic. She served as film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1981 to 1991. Early life and education Benson was born in New York City on December 4, 193 ...

of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' also gave acclaim to Stubbs, calling her a "magical screen presence", but critiqued the framing device that brings Ashton back to Devon 18 years later, saying, "It sets a mucilaginous tone to what should be a minor-key tragedy; the sharp differences of class and privilege have been sandpapered down into bucolic quaintness and banality." In ''Video Review'',

Molly Haskell Molly Clark Haskell (born September 29, 1939)Aitken, Ian, ed. (2006)''Encyclopedia of Documentary Film, Volume 2'' New York: Routledge. p. 541. . is an American film critic and author. She contributed to '' The Village Voice''—first as a ...

wrote, "This story of a tragic betrayal of a loving heart rolls with the inexorable force of a runaway railway train as it unfurls one unforgettable image after another of unrequited commitment. It is here that writer Mortimer's detailed characterizations come to the rescue of an otherwise obvious situation". She concluded, "The fiercely expressive beauty of Stubbs rescues this material from whimpering sentimentality".

References

External links

*
''A Summer Story''
at

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Summer Story, A Films based on works by John Galsworthy 1988 films 1988 romantic drama films Atlantic Entertainment Group films British romantic drama films Films scored by Georges Delerue Films about interclass romance Films about vacationing Films based on British short stories Films directed by Piers Haggard Films set in 1902 Films set in 1920 Films set on Dartmoor ITC Entertainment films 1980s historical films British historical films 1980s English-language films 1980s British films English-language romantic drama films English-language historical films