Shirley Valentine

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Stars: Alison Steadman, Joanna Lumley, Tom Conti, Pauline Collins

Year: 1989 Running Time: 108 mins Rating:

Oscar-nominated Pauline Collins is perfect as the bored housewife who's had enough of her egg-and-chips lifestyle and chucks it all in for sun and fun on a Greek island. She's not there to kick sand in her husband's face, but then she meets a dark-and-handsome local charmer (Tom Conti). A refreshing and uplifting cocktail of laughs and romance.

Review

This delightful romantic comedy started life as a one-woman stage show. But you'd never know it, as it took to the big screen like a duck to water.

Following their success with Educating Rita, director Lewis Gilbert and writer Willy Russell teamed up again, while Pauline Collins reprised the role she filled so successfully on stage and, inevitably, dominates the film.

She plays a bored housewife who dreams of drinking 'a glass of wine in a country where the grape is grown' and eventually takes off for a Greek island, leaving a note to her husband in the kitchen!

The fine supporting cast includes Tom Conti, Bernard Hill, Julia McKenzie and Joanna Lumley, but it's Pauline's show. It's something a little different and warm-hearted fun.