When Tom and Julie met Billy.

[Patrick]

I don't think about Billy Liar very often." Tom Courtenay's voice hovers on the line. We have been discussing his upcoming holiday to the north-east coast, splashing about in the warm shallows of the present-day; at this detour into the past, he pauses, and retreats a little. "If I read it now, it would make me laugh," he concludes lightly, distantly. "But I honestly don't know why it's lasted. Who can say why some things are successful?"It is now 50 years since Keith Waterhouse's novel transferred to the stage, casting in its title role first Albert Finney and later, Courtenay. Published in 1959, Billy Liar has, over those five decades, enjoyed a rich and varied existence, remembered not only as a novel and a play, but also as a film (again starring Courtenay), a musical and a TV series. This Saturday will see it revived once more, in a lavish stage adaptation at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.[/b][/url]

A rather clunky overwordy article follows - but it's nice to have it remembered and I'd love to 'go see' the production.

[Patrick]

This would be worth seeing too:

Tom Courtenay in Conversation
with The Guardian’s Laura Barton

When Billy Liar opened on London’s West End in 1960 it was with Albert Finney in the title role. Understudying him at the time was a 23 year old actor and fellow RADA graduate Tom Courtenay who would go on to take over the part of Billy in the West End and then on into the iconic film.

We’re delighted to have Tom with us Friday 10 September, 5pm to talk about his memories of those days at RADA, filming with Rodney Bewes and Julie Christie (amongst others) in Bradford and Leeds, and an incredibly successful career that includes film, television and stage (you may remember him here at the Playhouse in 2002 as Philip Larkin in Pretending to Be Me).

He’ll be in conversation with Laura Barton, Guardian columnist, novelist and ex-pat northern girl so there’s certain to be plenty of talk about how the region has changed and evolved in the fifty years since Billy first imagined escaping his life and heading for London.

Tickets are £10, but for Billy Liar ticket holders it's only £5. Book Now


Hmmm, Ms Barton's original article doesn't seem to be written with a great deal of affection mind, as if the details simply came out of a book rather than from experience and true affection for the book and film, so I'm not sure quite how warm the talk would be. I'd rather see him in conversation with Rodney Bewes!

[Patrick]

From the Yorkshire Playhouse website/Youtube

"Director Nick Bagnall and his cast talk about their new production of Yorkshire classic Billy Liar and how it resonates within Leeds. Video produced by Jonny Walton."

Hmmm. Don't think much of the director. Bloomin 12 year olds.

[everso]

Billy Liar - a brilliant book. You get right inside the character of Billy and feel for him. The film is excellent, but the book is far funnier.

One for the book club. I kind of envy anyone who's reading it for the first time.

[aubrey]

Me too. (I feel the same about a lot of books - MR James's Ghost stories, Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, a lot of Wodehouse...)

[everso]

Definitely Wodehouse! Wonderful wonderful books.

I really must get back to them as I've only read them once and have forgotten them.

[everso]

I'm not usually one for re-reading stuff, but there are a few books that I like a lot and could stand to read again.

[Weyland]

Sept 17, 2010 18:32:24 GMT everso said:

Definitely Wodehouse! Wonderful wonderful books.

'Tinkerty tonk,' I said, and I meant it to sting. -- Bertie Wooster

[Patrick]

I have a first edition of P.G.W's "If I Were You"

"What? Trouble in the Balkans again?"

_{I think that comes from there - though I've another not dissimilar farce it might have done.}

Correction: I think I'm thinking of "Mischief" by Ben Travers. Written around the same time it's a great traditional "Farce" - a "Tour do Farce" if you like with lots of marching in through French Windows etc.

[everso]

I remember a line from one of his books, that went something like:

He had a look of surprise on his face, like a man who'd been hit in the back by the Cornish Express.

Excellent.

[aubrey]

Madeleine Basset - more curves than a scenic railway.


He had the look of a man who'd been chasing rainbows, only to have one of them turn round and bite him on the leg.