ianlouisiana Review of A Private Function

A Private Function (1984)

Cardboard suitcases,Morris Eights and dodgy nylons.............

[8/10 · 16 November 2008]

Sometimes in 1947 Britain it was hard to grasp that we had "won the war" as we used to say in those days with scant regard for the efforts of our Russian and American allies.Everything was "On the ration",the shops were half - empty,British Industry was struggling with the burden of "Export or Die" and returning servicemen were finding that their jobs had been taken by non - combatants in their absence.Germany,on the other hand,was being rebuilt by the Yanks at astronomical expense whilst we were the recipients of the occasional "food parcel"Were we bitter?I should say so.Hence any chance to hit back at "them"(the government,authority in general,those seen as untouched by years of hardship) was seized with alacrity. Thus the Black Market thrived.If a butcher(Mr P Postlethwaite,say)had kept back one of his pigs from the men from the Ministry of Agriculture to keep for his own use it would be seen as a perfectly acceptable gesture particularly if we were to be beneficiaries from the crime through his shop. In "A Private Function" that master of the extraordinary ordinary Mr Alan Bennett has captured that era of spivs with cardboard suitcases alighting from black Morris Eights,dodgy nylons,blue - painted horse meat and large crispy fivers as if preserved in amber. He well knows the social aspirations of lower middle class Brits and the lengths they would(would? - still will..)go to in order to "improve" their perceived standing in the community.Miss M.Smith's ambitions in this area know no bounds.Her unfortunate husband(Mr M.Palin - mercifully a Python - Free performance for once) is completely in her thrall. He steals Mr Postlethwaite's pig and keeps it for use at the eponymous Private Function to celebrate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth,hoping to ensure favourable reaction to his application to open a shop and also to further his wife's social hopes. Almost parochially British in content,"Private Function" may be a curate's egg for those to whom our manners and mores are a bit of a mystery,but those looking for a successor to the old Alec Guinness - Stanley Holloway school of comedies need look no further.