1. Around 1997 or so, comedy drama TV movie(?) involving the members of
a theatrical group(?). A play is written called "The Sunrise" or
something like that, but soon before the play is about to go on, the
writer's wife (an actress in the play) is caught in bed with the lead
actor, who has died of a heart attack during the sex. The director
tells the writer to write their parts out, which the writer reluctantly
does saying "but he was a piece of 'zest' in the play" (The film seemed
to circle around this "hard-done-by" writer).
Later on, the members of the theatrical agency are celebrating the
opening of the play on the roof, with champagne. The speech by the
director is something like "may the show live a life of pride and
prejudice, sense and sensibility..." (I think that was meant to be an
in-joke, I'm not sure). But at that moment another of the actresses, a
blond woman who is very tipsy on champagne, exclaims "It's all flying!
And SO AM I!!!!" before leaning herself too far over the ledge and
falling off. Luckily she has only fallen onto a suspended platform just
below, but she is obviously very drunk and the director orders the writer
to write out her part too, to which he says "But she was the other
piece of 'zest'!!"
2. An "upper class" mini series shown in around 2002. It revolved
around a high society dinner party at a country manor, held by a woman
who was too disturbed about the "marshiness" of the grounds ("What
shall we do for a walkway?"), and at this party the following happened:
a. A middle aged woman called Alice who made a family tree for some
kids she used to look after (now grown up), but didn't include one boy, Richard,
because he had become a drug addict and an "embarrassment" and had died. The boy's
sister blew her top and there was a big crescendo in the "summer house"
where the F-word was used liberally. At this point some annoyingly
plummy kids came in playing "hide and seek" ("Oh hark, there are people
in here! We can't possibly hide in here!"). Later at the dinner party,
Alice held a toast to Richard, to the sister's surprise.
b. Two old ladies who lie on the grass remembering the 1920s.
c. Three old war veterans who empty a car's contents onto the pavement
so there is enough room for them in there, to go to the party.
d. A man who asks a distant relative for the reason why his aunt and
uncle used to enjoy dressing him as a clown. It turns out the clown
reminded them of a portrait they used to have sex under. (Complete with flashbacks- I wish I was
making this up)
Thanks if you know any of these, they've been on my curiosity for some time......
― JTS (JTS), Monday, 5 February 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)
Yes it is!! "Perfect Strangers" from 2001! Did you already know the story or was it a wild guess?
Thank you, it's interesting to use the IMDb comments section to fill in the gaps in my memory.
Anyone know what the other one is? For it to be from 1997-ish it would have to be farcical enough for me to like, and adulterated enough for my parents (in order for us to watch it together). Stuff we used to watch around this time were The Office (no, not that one), See You Friday, Cold Feet pilot, Crime Traveller, Hospital! (the first film they showed on Channel 5), all of which I could only remember snippets from and then found out what they were later. So it's probably very similar in terms of style and time period to those....
― JTS (JTS), Monday, 5 February 2007 16:02 (eighteen years ago)
I remember the one with Clive Owen and the incest (not from the first time around, obviously!). Quite a difference!!!
The man was dressed as a clown as a child during the kids' parties the aunt and uncle (or whoever they were) used to hold. She also used to appear in the background of photos of his dad dancing in the "grounds" (I probably missed the deep commentary of how the class system is layered and focused more on the campy Howard's Way style bitching.... I was 13 at the time....).
― JTS (JTS), Monday, 5 February 2007 20:48 (eighteen years ago)