''Late Flowering Lust'' is a television film starring

Nigel Hawthorne Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom ''Yes Minister'' and the Cabinet Secre ...

, based on the poetry of

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...

. Produced by Caroline Speed and directed by David Hinton, it first aired on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

on 8 May 1994. The film features performances by the dancers of Adventures in Motion Pictures, set to the music of Jim Parker.

Synopsis

When Cousin John is invited to a pre-

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

weekend

house party A house party is a type of party held at the home of the party's host. Organization A house party might be organized several months or just a few hours in advance. News of a party may be spread by personal invitations, word of mouth, pos ...

in Home Counties Betjeman land, he is taken aback by the beauty of the gels. His hosts, the Faircloughs, are of the older generation and the daughter and all her friends are of the younger one. The

bright young things __NOTOC__ The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in London during the Roaring Twenties. The name was given to them by the tabloid press. They threw flamboyant fancy dress part ...

cavort through their social litany: tennis, golf, swimming, cycling, even a pheasant shoot. Cousin John is left on the fringes of the activity, watching wistfully.

Cast

as Cousin John *

Richenda Carey Richenda Carey (born 29 April 1948) is a British actress who is mostly known for her roles in '' Monarch of the Glen'', ''Jeeves and Wooster'', Darling Buds of May, ''Crush'' and more recently, '' Separate Lies'' and ''Criminal Justice''. Care ...

as Mrs Fairclough *

Jonathan Cecil Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil (22 February 1939 – 22 September 2011), known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English actor. Early life Cecil was born on 22 February 1939,''Burke's Peerage'', vol. 3 (London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 2003), p. 350 ...

as Mr Fairclough Rosemary Allen, Scott Ambler,

Matthew Bourne Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer. His productions contain many classic cinema and popular culture references and draw thematic inspiration from musicals, film noir and popular culture. Popular ...

, Ally Fitzpatrick, Maxine Fone, Andrew George, Etta Murfitt and Simon Murphy from Adventures in Motion Pictures portray the bright young things.

Production

''Late Flowering Lust'' arose from Nigel Hawthorne's appreciation for Betjeman's poetry and was originally conceived as a theatre production by Hawthorne and his partner, Trevor Bentham. However, when approached by producer Douglas Rae, they opted for a film version to keep open the possibility of a later stage run. They proposed involving Adventures in Motion Pictures and inviting Matthew Bourne to choreograph the film. Hawthorne, portraying Cousin John, described the character as "an amalgam of

Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architectu ...

, myself and my father". Filming took place over two weeks in the summer of 1993. The house featured was Benington Lordship, near

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. The park and gardens of Benington Lordship and the 19th-century gatehouse also featured in the production. Jim Parker's music, originally composed for the albums ''Banana Blush'', ''Late Flowering Love'' (both 1974) and ''Varsity Rag'' (1981), was performed by the

Nash Ensemble The Nash Ensemble of London is an English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman and Rodney Slatford in 1964, while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around t ...

under Parker's direction. Hawthorne recited the poetry of John Betjeman. Hawthorne mentioned in a 1994 interview that a stage version was planned for the following February, but it never came to fruition. Benington Lordship - Hertfordshire (26051709031).jpg, Benington Lordship features in the comedy drama Benington Lordship 001 (8249305273).jpg, The 19th-century gatehouse Benington Lordship-5280019050.jpg, The gardens of Benington Lordship

Reception

''Late Flowering Lust'' received widespread praise following its initial broadcast. Max Davidson notes that "the point about lust for Betjeman was that it was real and potent and ubiquitous", while saying that "Hawthorne simpering at a girl in tennis shorts was experiencing nothing stronger than the humiliation Sir Humphrey Appleby might feel if his secretary turned up in a short skirt."

Accolades

''Late Flowering Lust'' was nominated for a Golden Rose of Montreux television award.

Home video

The film was only ever released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

, so it is not available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

References

Sources

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External links

* * {{Authority control John Betjeman BBC television dramas 1994 television films