In this show we look at the cult 1980’s film Withnail and I starring Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant. We are also joined by Wendy Scott from Sending a Wave.
This film is available on DVD, for some suggestions as to where to get hold of a copy of it click here. Also, the books that Paul mentions within the show are still available: With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant, is available here, and also the book Very Naughty Boys, which is the history of Handmade Films, the company that made this and some other cult movies. That book is available here.
This podcast was a lot of fun, and we would love to have some of your thoughts, as usual you can visit our forums (see the link to the right) and you can also leave comments on the discussion topic on our Facebook Group.
You can download the show direct by clicking here, and options for subscribing via iTunes or another podcatcher are on the right hand side of this page.
You may have read, either here or elsewhere, that the BBC is bringing back their 70s series Survivors. We are going to watch this with a keen interest – and to celebrate the launch of the new show we are going to cover the first two episodes of the old. To that end, we would welcome your thoughts on those episodes and what you are looking forward to in the new series, as well as what you think are the potential pitfalls.
That’s it, see you all in a fortnight with the first story from the second series of Doctor Who: Planet of Giants.
Hello, lads. Bloody good show.
Among our number is one who is very interested in BBFC ratings, and in response to something that came up in the show.
Withnail and I is and always has been a 15, Monty’s terrible c*nt not withstanding.
The BBFC have only one selection in their list of “Withnail” results which has an 18 rating, and they are extras for a version of the DVD. Although, there is no 18 rated DVD version either. Superbly confusing.
Well, we’re always happy to have our inaccuracies corrected
In all honesty, there are certain facts we are always confident on and will back to the hilt. Of course, there are others we’re less sure of and will rely on the tried and tested Have I Got News For You formula of adding the word “allegedly” to shamelessly cover up our ignorance!
Glad you like the show. I’ll be embarrassingly honest and admit I’ve not listened to yours yet, however I’ll definitely be looking it up now!
You’ll be able to correct tons of stuff in ours!
Hello again. Liked the show, just listened to it as part of a relaxing Saturday morning – but one thing occurred to me as possibly having been overlooked.
I should say at the outset that I haven’t watched Withnail in a little while now, but my interpretation of the final scene, and of Withnail’s relationship with Marwood, differs to the ones you discussed in the podcast. Two things always struck me – first, that Withnail is sexually ambiguous, and that this seems to be underlined by the second, his soliloquising after Marwood’s departure.
Bear in mind that I first saw this scene during a Shakespeare lecture which may have coloured my view somewhat, but I always thought it was significant that the speech Withnail gives at this point is Hamlet’s ‘paragon of animals’ waffle – which isn’t a celebration of the human being in the way that I’ve a feeling a Star Trek presented it, but instead a declaration of absolute desolation. Hamlet’s explanation of the wonders surrounding him only go to emphasize the absolute emptiness inside him – he sees the paragon of animals as no more than the ‘quintessence of dust’. It’s a statement of depression and loss.
It also, as it happens, ends on a joke based on sexual ambiguity – Hamlet says ‘man delights me not’ and then quickly adds ‘no, nor woman either’ to head off a laddish joke from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern who appear ready to deliberately misinterpret ‘man delights me not’.
Point is, however selfish and self-serving Withnail undoubtedly is, I think that final scene is meant to be a tragedy – that he’s losing somebody who means a lot to him – not even in a sexual way (Withnail is surprisingly sexually ambiguous himself). Perhaps Withnail, exactly as his choice of soliloqy indicates, is not delighted by man, or woman, but that even so this particular individual mattered to him. His charmless offers of a final drink seem like a frustrated attempt to get Marwood to stay.
Viewed this way the film – which I think dwells on ambiguity in the relationship between the two leads (particularly the sexual ambiguity of ‘I’ who is seen as gay by more than one onlooker at different times in the film) throughout – always seemed to me to be a sad love story hiding inside a comedy. Compare that parting scene to the way that a lot of ‘weepies’ end, with one person going off to a better life, and having to leave the other behind…
Or, I could be talking bollocks. Wotcha think?
Hi Tristan,
I think that some of what you say is very valid. Everyone I’ve spoken to has a different take on the film. However, when you say that more than one onlooker sees Marwood as gay during the film, I can only think of Monty and the Irish drunk in the pub (if there are any more, feel free to correct me). And the only reason he thinks Marwood is gay is because of the perfume on his boots he had to use to get the stench of Withnail’s vomit out of them. It doesn’t appear to be because of anything he does per se, just because (as the drunk says) he smells like a ‘perfumed ponce’. The only reason Monty thinks he is gay is because that is what Withnail told him.
I agree that the end is tragic and all about loss. I’ve never seen it as a ‘romantic’ love story, just as a sad parting-of-the-ways tale of two people who became friends through circumstance. I believe that Withnail with definitely miss Marwood, as he appears to be his only friend and they have shared a lot of their (so far) adult life experiences together. Marwood on the other hand will, I suspect, miss Withnail for a while but will make friends far easier and will, over time, move on.
However you look at it, it’s a great film.
“I’ll show the lot of you. I’m going to be a STAR!”