Flickers (1980)

Genre

comedy, drama

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 6 episodes

Rated

AA

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A working class man tries to become a filmmaker in early cinema. A wealthy woman decides to finance his movie projects. Their unusual partnership involves dealing with eccentric people from the film business.

comediclight-heartednostalgicquirkywhimsicalbittersweetperiodoffbeat

What happens

Flickers is a British television series written by Roy Clarke. Six episodes were produced by ATV which were originally broadcast on ITV in 1980. A comedy drama, it stars Bob Hoskins as a pioneering filmmaker and Frances de la Tour as the wealthy, middle-class woman who backs his ambitions. Some critics compared it negatively with Pennies from Heaven which had also starred Hoskins, whilst others were more favourable: John J. O'Connor from The New York Times described it as "one of the daffiest and most hilarious original screenplays written for television. As Arnie and Maud stagger through their unusual relationship, 'Flickers”'provides representative samplings of types involved in the motion picture business, from short and alcoholic comedian stars to corrupt lawyers, from aging child stars to lazy cameramen." Meanwhile, Jennifer Lovelace from the Stage wrote, "Flickers is well researched. Enhanced by splendid automobiles, decorative costumes and authentic design work, it has a strong sense of cinematic history that would carry it through without the occasional attempts to reproduce the frenetic aura of the silent movie that are a fraction contrived." Set in the early days of the British film industry, the series was inspired by Clarke reading the autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille, one of the founding fathers of American cinema. Clarke noted in 1980, "I was staggered that nobody had thought of a series about the old timers of the movie world, apart from the documentary subjects. It seemed to me that there was much more excitement in what went on behind the scenes, than in front." During preproduction, Clarke and his producer Joan Brown undertook a great level of research on the British film industry in order to get the background and historical accuracy right, including period costumes, vehicles and props; film historian John Huntley was employed as technical advisor and supplied an original film camera dating from the early 1910s. Although the show was described as a light drama in ATV's publicity for the series, Clarke pointed out that it maintained a lot of humour, despite being more dramatic than his earlier works. In 1982, it received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited Series. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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