Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987) User Reviews

Will unsettle some but delight others

[tomgillespie2002 · 7/10 · 6 April 2017]

British playwright Andrea Dunbar combined two of her stage plays to create the movie script for Rita, Sue and Bob Too, a movie which, in my family at least, is somewhat fondly remembered as a naughty and gleefully foul-mouthed comedy about an older, married man who starts a sexually-charged relationship with two schoolgirls who babysit his children. 30 years on, the subject matter could be slightly troubling, and it just may be exactly that for some people seeing it for the first time. Yet with the tagline "Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down!" and the socially aware Alan Clarke at the helm, it's clear that the film is much more than a titillating throwback to the Carry On days, and paints an incredibly grim picture of working-class life in Bradford, and of Britain as a whole.

Rita (Downton Abbey's Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two bubbly and outgoing girls making some extra cash on the side by babysitting for middle-class couple Bob (George Cositgan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). While driving the girls home one night, Bob takes a detour to the moors where he proceeds to have sex with both of them, one after the other. The threesome start a potentially damaging relationship, with the girls having to deal with a troubled home- life and the pressures of school gossip, and Bob coming under scrutiny from his wife, who he has cheated on many times before. As Bob and Rita grow closer and Sue finds herself in an abusive relationship with young Pakistani Aslam (Kulvinder Ghir), close bonds are broken and lives are ruined, when all Bob really wants is to get his rocks off.

It is a film that would never get made nowadays, but Clarke's film never attempts to make any stance on the morality of the characters' actions. For a guy who sounds like a complete scumbag on paper, Bob is a surprisingly likable, if obviously flawed, chap. Rita and Sue are so loud, abrasive and willing to participate in the bizarre three-way that they it's impossible to view them as victims. The picture painted by Dunbar and Clarke of a crumbling Britain in the grip of austerity suggests that the central characters are acting out of boredom and to escape the banality of their suffocating environment. It is a socioeconomic drama cleverly disguised as an old-fashioned sex farce, and succeeds in being socially observant and laugh-out-loud funny. The introduction to Sue's frenetic home- life is a mixture of amusing one-liners and kitchen-sink angst, and this lopsided tone is consistent throughout the rest of the film. With its lack of ethical judgement amidst such a potentially creepy subject matter, Rita, Sue and Bob Too with unsettle some but delight others.

...it was acceptable in the 80's....

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 31 July 2023]

Middle aged, married man Bob starts a sexual fling with his babysitters, schoolgirls Rita and Sue.

The first thing to point out, they'd never get away with this film nowadays, I imagine that some will watch in horror, outraged by the storyline, a story that probably had more than a hint of realism.

It's almost impossible to explain what this film is, pretty much a comedy drama, but it's so much more. The sheer variety of content is still so impressive, it's funny, it's sad, it shows all sides of life, good and bad.

The performances are spot on, Costigan and Sharp are great, but Holmes and Finneran steal it.

Expect to see some wonderfully hideous 1980's decor, that pink leather sofa on the patterned red carpet, the green jardiniere, not the most stylish era.

It's a classic, but one where you'll need to remember the time it was made.

8/10.

We're having a gang bang!!

[PsychoKlown · 8/10 · 26 August 2005]

Where do i start? I brought my fiancé this DVD because he picked it out and i have to admit i was dreading watching it because i thought it would be sh*t, but i stand corrected it's totally funny i couldn't stop laughing. The story is a married man called Bob seduces the babysitters Ria and Sue in his car when parked out on the moors resulting in a hilarious sex scene. The three continue their relationship of casual sex and good times even though they know the truth will eventually be known.

As i said comedy is a big part of this film which is mainly from the common accents and swearing from practically the whole cast (especially Kevin, Sue's racist, drunkard dad). Other comedy moments are the old nosey neighbour (Hosepipe Harry) who spends the whole film watering his garden and the dance scene where Bob and the two girls are dancing to a song called "We're having a gang bang!" which is funny just for Rita's dancing (best moment in the film!) although a friend of Bob's wife (Fat F*ckin' Mavis) sees them and tells her leading to a full scale argument with the girls families and the married couple, which has more swearing in the 5 minute scene then a whole series of the Osbournes.

This is a great British film and anyone with a sense of humour will enjoy it!

This is a vastly under_rated film

[dannyfitzuk · 10 January 2004]

Someone has previously posted that this film is about class and social division which is certainly true and one of the many sub-texts of the screenplay. It interests me that reaction to this film also seems to be delineated along class lines and social division. When I've mentioned this film in passing to middle-class types they turn their noses up in horror and say this film is so 'depressing'. In contrast, to anyone from a hum-drum town anywhere in the British Isles (in my case Ireland) or inner city working class background, a mention of the film if they've seen it, brings on a laugh and smiles of recognition of shared experiences.

Hyper-realism may prevail in this film but there are many many reasons to watch it. The most important of which is to be reminded, if one needs reminding, what devastating changes took place during Thatcher's political reign during the 80's. The appalling errosion of social housing and services, and the introduction of the exploitative Youth Training Schemes which paid a pittance to participants. Overcrowded classrooms, and few opportunities to socialise meant teenagers had to make their own fun just like Rita and Sue.

To me no other film evokes the 80's like this film, it always brings me out in tears of laughter as I recognise the characters from my own life. Practically every girl in my home town dressed exactly like Rita and Sue, bare legged and white stillettoed. I can't remember any other film that captures the teenage mischieve-ness and innocence of 80's teenagers. That scene where they go to the museum with the other school girls and exiting onto a cobbled Yorkshire street Sue utters the immortal line: '..she called me a slag so I hit her!, after assaulting a virgin classmate, is a real hoot. For me the funniest scene is when Rita and Sue start giggling in embarassment as Bob and The Wife start having a barny after returning home after a night on the tiles. (N.B. if Rita and Sue have been hired as babysitters how come we never see the kid they're babysitting?)

This film is not depressing. The two main protagonists (Rita and Sue) are finding fun, excitement and adventure (isn't it better to be walking around in cow dung getting fresh air and a 'jump' from the middle class neighbour in a car than loitering around a dreary housing estate?) as an antidote to their hopeless circumstances. They don't feel anymore more victimised than Bob's wife. They maybe poor and working class; but they're getting bonked regularly unlike Bob's missus!

The performances are absolutely sterling, there are no false moves or corny lines. And Lesley Sharp is truly comical as she jumps on Bob's suit and calls him every name under the sun. For me the actor who shines most is Michelle Holmes, and I always love watching her whatever role she's playing ever since seeing her in this film.

I wish the bourgeois critics could put aside their own prejudices and snobberies and see this film for what it really is. A gritty realistic picture of 80's England and a precursor to the highly successful 'Full Monty'. It is also a great heart warming film for adults that was way ahead of its time when it was being made in the mid 80's. Every time I see it I laugh out loud - if you're ever feeling a bit down, watch this film! It will blow the cobwebs away completely, trust me!

As far as I'm concerned this is up there with 'Brief Encounter' as a classic British film. I'm serious!

True!

[WILLOWSYKES · 7/10 · 17 January 2004]

It's not Hugh Grant in some over priced London suburb falling in love with hilarious results, It's not angry young men fighting against an unfair class system, it's not about forbidden homosexual partnerships or a mixing of Indian and British culture. This film shows a snap shot of British working class life as it was (and still is in many cases!). The British film industry's Liberal Elite hate this kind of movie as it attempts to show real people. Not every working class person has a chip on there shoulder! It's packed full of swearing and sex and even a little bit of violence. If you are easily offended don't watch, but if you fancy a realistic Brit flick that doesn't have Hugh Grant in it, then see this.

Talk Like That's Dirty In Our House ...

[sarah-508-649421 · 7/10 · 12 November 2022]

.. talk like that and I'd get a belt .. hello 1980s how I've missed you. Before everyone gets up in arms about the smooth talking Bob and his two girls - these two girls at time of filming were both in their 20s!

This for me when I was watching back in 1987 was the closest we could get to porn. No internet porn. No adult channels. Only porn videos you could get from some dodgy fella at work. So this was it. We were having a gang bang. Having a born. A bit of a three some one the moors with the horn honking and smooth Bob telling you to shift your bum up whilst he prepared to go again with Rita.

Be prepared for some language no longer allowed now a days that was used to described the corner shop way back when and just take the film with a pinch of salt. Get stuck in there!

Saucy and intentionally depressing "comedy" set in the most desperate of circumstances.

[barnabyrudge · 6/10 · 22 October 2012]

Surely one of the most intentionally depressing "comedies" ever made; Rita, Sue And Bob Too is a film that not only divides audience opinion but personal opinion too. Few films force the individual viewer to question their own feelings as much as this one. Should we laugh along with the characters? Should we pity them? Should we love them or loathe them? Should we even care? The strength of the film is that it never lectures us, never moralises, and never tells us what conclusions to draw… we are left to react however we will, and many viewers down the years have struggled to decide whether they like the film or hate it.

Thirty-something married man Bob (George Costigan) leads a seemingly comfortable existence in a smart newly built house on a quiet residential estate. His wife Michelle (Lesley Sharp) is a typical glamour-puss, more interested in appearances than what's beneath her immaculate make-up and expensive clothing. Bob and Michelle ask a pair of local teenage girls, Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) – both residents on a rough 'n' tumble nearby council estate – to babysit for them while they go out. While taking the girls home later that evening, Bob drives them up onto the moors and persuades them both to have sex with him. His marriage – especially his sex life – is already on the rocks and Bob is desperate to exploit whatever opportunities he can. Soon their sexual liaisons become a regular thing and it isn't long before Michelle finds out what Bob is up to (not for the first time too, it transpires). The rest of the film deals with the collapse of Bob's marriage and his ever-unpredictable relationship with Rita and Sue.

Directed by TV veteran Alan Clarke, Rita, Sue And Bob Too should be applauded for not taking the easy way out. Clarke's film looks right into the jaws of squalid working class existence and doesn't attempt to prettify it in the slightest. If this makes you uneasy, Clarke says, then that's your problem. Turn off the TV and go back to something cosier. The performances are generally honest and true - Costigan is outstanding as the philandering husband, Sharp wonderfully convincing as his wife, while Holmes and Finneran bring a spirited sauciness to the roles of Rita and Sue. They're not likable characters but they are admirable as survivors of a harsh upbringing. Sue's father, an abusive drunk and foul-mouthed loser, is played with frightening conviction by Willie Ross. The scenes of sex and domestic abuse make for uneasy viewing, while certain aspects of the film come across as rather dated. Also many viewers might feel that Bob should get some sort of come-uppance at the end of the film, although in fairness he is himself exploited by Rita and Sue just as much as he exploits them. The film defiantly refuses to be judgmental and avoids any kind of hopeful ending in which the characters have learned some kind of life lesson. It's important to come to the film understanding that the whole point is to spend 93 minutes experiencing what life is like in someone else's shoes. It's not about liking or disliking what you see, nor whether this way of life is normal or completely alien to you. It's just about experiencing this short but turbulent period of Rita, Sue and Bob's existence. It's impossible to recommend the film as an entertaining experience (it's most definitely not a laugh-a-minute raunchy comedy) but it remains one of the most notable films of working class life to come out of Yorkshire in the '80s and, as such, deserves a look.

Strangely compelling dark comedy with some eye-catching performances

[Ruskington · 7/10 · 13 April 2020]

Very few films manage to capture the grim reality of working-class England in the 1980s as well as this underappreciated gem from Alan Clarke. For a movie that touches on issues of alcohol abuse, infidelity, domestic violence and racism, it is testament to the excellent writing that this is so enjoyable to watch. Clark manages to strike a perfect balance between gloomy social realism and in-your-face comedy.

The film features impressive performances from some highly underrated British actors in the infancy of their careers including Lesley Sharp, Siobhan Finneran and George Costigan. Michelle Holmes is a little full-on but her character drives the story along with a great degree of vivaciousness and humour. We also get an incredibly accurate portrayal of a hapless drunk by Willie Ross, who steals the show in all his scenes. The old man having his own little viewing party on the council estate is one of those lovely moments that stays with you long after watching. I always loved Danny O'Dea as Eli in Last of The Summer Wine and was delighted to find out it was him up there on the balcony

Very, very '80s and very very good

[bakerjp · 9/10 · 2 March 2000]

I hated the 1980s when I lived through them, but looking back from a distance, it's easier to make sense of them. Rita, Sue and Bob Too is an exemplary British '80s film. It's not very pretty - Rita and Sue are two giggling teenage girls, all decked out in white - from their stilletos to the highlights in Sue's hair. They live on a sink-hole council estate in Bradford. Bob is "middle-class" in that he lives in sterile private housing - all nice lawns and open spaces. But Bob drops his "h"s too, and wears a gold chain.

The three begin a "relationship" which is based on sex. None of the characters are represented as particularly nice, but instead they're "real". I knew a lot of Ritas and Sues when I was growing up, and the two young actresses who play these parts do a stellar job.

For me, a lot of the humour in the film derives from the depictions of "class" - from Sue's awful drunk father uselessly brandishing a baseball bat, to Bob's wife - clearly only about half a stilleto heel up the social ladder than Rita and Sue, but desperate to be seen to be something better. Her acting is stilted, laughable, awful. But it's supposed to be - the character is acting at being posh - badly. Lines like "Make your own f**king tea" when she's trying to impress and intimidate the girls are wonderfully comic.

I also like the racial slant to the film - the guy who plays Sue's Asian boyfriend is attractive, and presented both sympathetically and unsympathetically at the same time (like most of the lead characters in the film) - at first he's nervous around Sue, but quickly tries to assert control over her. When Sue drops him, he's pathetic again, but this too is only a ruse. I think this film paved the way for later films like "East is East", which reminds me of it a lot.

I also like the depictions of gossipy, interfering neighbours - both from the under-class estate (especially the strange old man who dances in glee at the "street-fight") and the middle-class private housing (the guy who endlessly waters his plants in the garden so he can spy on the events in Bob's house). One of my favourite sequences is when Bob's wife's friend comes to tell her that she's seen Bob with the girls. Her fakey "concern" is shown - not by speech, but by the fact that she is half running to the house: she can't WAIT to tell her news and ruin the relationship. All of this is so cleverly and wittily observed, in a completly understated way.

This is a brilliant film. Put it on your "must-see" list.

Come on Lad! Its not that bleak now.

[mcbarnicle · 7/10 · 21 December 2006]

There's a lot more social commentary to this movie that the previous commentator would have you believe. If you lived in the UK during this time (thatcher you evil bitch!), it may make it difficult to separate yourself from the themes and story in this movie. Sometimes that is what makes movies truly great - that they speak to you on a very personal level - a level that you cannot stand or abide. Sort of like the popularity of "the office" - riding on that almost unwatchable uncomfortableness. Anyway yes when the band ahem "slade" sing 'We're having a gang bang, we're having ball, we're having a gang bang against the wall'. - it is the best bit.

I lived through the Eighties but I barely survived this film...

[oldempire · 1/10 · 17 February 2007]

I can just about understand why some people might wish to stress this film's link with the Eighties but I really wouldn't say it's an accurate depiction of most peoples' lives in that era - even on the poorest Bradford estates. It is however typical of the blunt agitprop rubbish the dear old Royal Court Theatre was churning out at that time. Plenty of 'right-on' artistry for small, small audiences but enough well-connected backslapping to ensure future commissions for turgid playrights. IThe simple fact is that if you want to reflect upon truer common experience you'll find millions more nodding in knowing agreement to love and live as depicted in 'Gregory's Girl'.

I would be tempted to call this a 'kitchen sink' drama but that would be doing a great disservice to the plumbing industry. However, as far as having a decent script is concerned, this film is indeed all washed up. For some reason it has accrued an odd following amongst Guardian reading film-goers - I can only assume they get a visual frisson out of pretending to slum it. Steer clear my friends. It is a poor film with a poor script that likes to think it is breaking boundaries by adding humorous insights into grim life on the estates. it isn't..but it is grim. Do the washing up instead.

One of the best films of the 1980s

[denzil-09434 · 9/10 · 21 April 2019]

This movie has stood up very well over the years. All the performances are excellent and the writing is better than that of any British film I can bring to mind. The fact that it was written by a very young woman is amazing. She had such a deep understanding of how the world works at such a young age and was able to turn it into a spectacularly entertaining and enduring work of art.

It's one of those films you can watch over and over again. In my repeat viewing chart it's probably second only to The Blues Brothers.

Great fun and they'll never make anything like this ever again.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 1 March 2007]

I heard about this for having some strong sexual scenes, and my Mum liked the film, and it turned out to be quite a fun film that went just a bit too quickly. There is no real story apart from Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two school girls having a sexual fling with a married man named Bob (George Costigan). It started with Bob asking if they know anything about sex, being virgins, and then having sex with them one at a time. It continues through the film, many meetings in not very popular public places and having sex. There are obviously many arguments about who should go first, Sue being argumentative towards her mother (Patti Nicholls) and father (Willie Ross), and Bob trying to end it to be with wife Michelle (Lesley Sharp). But it is a good comedy drama with some good laughs and turns. It was number 57 on The 100 Greatest Sexy Moments. Very good!

What was the point?

[bob_bear · 2/10 · 18 February 2007]

I don't understand the positive comments made about this film. It is cheap and nasty on all levels and I cannot understand how it ever got made.

Cartoon characters abound - Sue's foul-mouthed, alcoholic, layabout, Irish father being a prime example. None of the characters are remotely sympathetic - except, briefly, for Sue's Asian boyfriend but even he then turns out to be capable of domestic violence! As desperately unattractive as they both are, I've no idea why either Rita and/or Sue would throw themselves at a consummate creep like Bob - but given that they do, why should I be expected to care what happens to them? So many reviews keep carping on about how "realistic" it is. If that is true, it is a sad reflection on society but no reason to put it on film.

I didn't like the film at all.

Crude, accurate and painfully funny (mild spoilers)

[world_of_weird · 16 September 2004]

Be warned - if you like Richard Curtis's awfully nice idea of romantic comedies with Hugh Grant being jolly pleasant and frightfully British, then give 'Rita, Sue and Bob Too' a VERY wide berth, because this will make you choke on your cucumber sandwiches. It's a grim and gritty study of British working-class life at its most honest and vulgar, and it never once romanticizes its subjects or loses sight of the truth. Council estate schoolgirls Rita (plain and dowdy, heavy metal biker brothers) and Sue (brassy and busty, alcoholic dad, lazy mum) earn extra pocket-money babysitting for the aspirational, nouveau-riche Bob and his prudish, wannabe-'posh' wife. When Bob takes them up on the moors, cuts the small talk and starts discussing contraceptives with them, you know things are going to get coarse, and they do, with one of the funniest (and most graphic) sex scenes you'll ever witness. The girls see their nocturnal romps with Bob ("His legs weren't half hairy!", just one of dozens of memorable quotes) as nothing more than a bit of fun, whilst Bob sees them as an escape valve for his rampant libido and failing marriage. To call this a comedy of manners would be like calling a Vin Deisel film intelligent, but on a basic, plain-talk level, that's exactly what it is. Bob's house, though expensively decorated and furnished, is in appalling taste, and the scenes where he politely argues with his faux-genteel wife (who obviously considers herself a cut above something as vulgar as sexual intercourse) are reminiscent of Mike Leigh's 'Abigail's Party'. Sue's parents are hilarious, with the acting honours going to Sue's perma-drunk dad, a wonky-eyed walking slum who's all bluster and no action. The supporting characters, like it or not, are also bang on the money - Black Lace, essentially playing themselves, turn up as a hideous party band, comedian Kulvinder Ghir does a convincing turn as the shy Asian lad who is, by turns, charmingly vulnerable and frighteningly thuggish, Sue's leering, jeering, nosey neighbors are hilarious and the harried schoolteacher (who has to stop a daytrip to an obviously historical village from turning into an all-out riot when Sue picks a fight with a girl who has called her a "slag"!) with his Arthur Askey impersonations - wasted on an ignorant class of no-hopers - is a virtual textbook example of how to get a lot out of a little role. Although this film is hugely offensive, it's also hugely entertaining and will stand as a valuable social document of a tumultuous period of British history - you can take that to the bank!

Its Grim Up North

[rss-2 · 7/10 · 4 November 2002]

A very well observed comedy drama, set in a very bleak Yorkshire town. The film manages to come up with many laughs despite the depressingly empty nature of the characters and setting. A less bizarre place than The League of Gentlemens Royson Vaisey - but equally frightening. Look out for 80s party supergroup Black Lace at their most seedy.

Dirty old man!

[adamjohns-42575 · 6/10 · 29 August 2022]

Rita, Sue And Bob Too (1987) -

I loved this film when I was an adolescent, probably because I got to see Bob's bum and the horny little bugger in me would have dined out on that for weeks. I also loved the 'Gang Bang' song by Black Lace which I couldn't believe was allowed and was hysterical to me, naive thing that I was.

But I'm not sure, watching it in 2022, that I would have found it so much fun to watch if I was coming to it new. The nostalgia of it, makes it something that I will watch again, because I can remember the sort of life that it depicted, but a lot of the acting was quite exaggerated like in Mike Leigh's films, 'Life Is Sweet' (1990) for one example.

I think that acting has come a long way since then and it's far less stagey and there isn't the need to project voices as these types of films seemed to do. As a result everything got a bit loud and grating. And Lesley Sharp was positively awful in her performance here, I know she has done better since.

I think this film was better than the Mike Leigh ones though. It's subject matter was slightly more realistic and less comical, just for the sake of laughs, but both styles were of an ilk.

Looking back as I was, it was difficult to see what any of them saw in each other really. None of them were exactly stunners even by the late 80's standards and their personalities weren't that charming either. I suppose the point of it was to show the skewed morals of the time and the sex obsessed nation that Britain really was, as opposed to the 'Merchant Ivory' repressed Victorian era films that were also being released.

In many ways, this film was a bit of a grim representation of things. Maybe I was lucky to live where I did in 1989/90, but the families shown and the estates that they lived on in this film were quite a vulgar picture of life. I hope that those were exaggerated too. Even Bob and his wife lacked class, despite their alleged higher station in life. As I've said though, I was probably sheltered to a lot of what was happening elsewhere whilst in my semi detached house in Devon with Mummy and Daddy.

I still like this film, but I could understand if others, coming to it fresh, might not enjoy it as much. It's certainly not something that I could recommend to my Niece or Nephew and expect then to actually appreciate it for the naive charm that I found in it oh so long ago.

642.23/1000.

even if it be that we refuse to learn from it at least that we might have a good laugh.

[christopher-underwood · 10/10 · 21 August 2020]

I saw this more than 30 years ago upon its original theatrical release and loved it. Watching it again now and it is a reminder of just how much has changed since those late 80s. Changed, not so much in the sense that it was born of the Thatcher years, with perceived social unfairness and austerity but that the film could have been made back then. For it certainly could not be made now. It is ironic that for all the talk of how understanding we all are of each other and our orientation, we are not permitted to say these things outside of an agreed context and certainly not make jokes about them. Some complained at the time that this was not a true reflection of life on a deprived estate, that people did not behave like this and girls never. Unfortunately there are probably more people now inclined to deny that there were ever such people and certainly not now. To those in denial, perhaps it is safer to stay away but for everybody else this is an essential slice of cinematic realism with wonderfully naturalistic performances that is really, laugh out loud funny. I note that the main actors, for whom this was pretty much their first work, have gone on to decent careers but sadly not the writer, Andrea Dunbar who died a couple of years after the film's release. She came from the very estate where the film was shot and did not intend her portrayal as criticism. She just took the opportunity to write about her circumstances and those around her and make people laugh. I can never remember whether she was Rita or Sue but I guess it doesn't matter, just that this tiny but authentic window on a life, this spotlight on the largely unseen and unacknowledged, should still shine and even if it be that we refuse to learn from it at least that we might have a good laugh.

The joylessness of sex

[son_of_cheese_messiah · 1/10 · 13 September 2010]

And you thought EastEnders was grim! I pity the poor punter who braved a cold winter's evening to see this at the cinema (if it was ever shown there). For in this unfunny sex "comedy" we have possibly the sleaziest and least subtle film I've seen.

The plot actually appears to be an ageing man's wish-fulfilment fantasy about a ménage-a-trois with two willing under-age schoolgirls. The film starts with one of the most joyless scenes in cinema: Bob, a man in his thirties, deflowering two 15 year olds in his car. Although this soon becomes common knowledge, no one even questions him over this, not even when later one of the girls, Rita, moves in with him. She is still at school at the time, but neither her parents (who never appear) nor anyone else objects to this, except her friend, (Bob's other lover Sue) and purely on the grounds on jealousy.

Bob's wife, whose low sex-drive provides a slim pretext for this exploitation of the under-aged and vulnerable, gets wind of this and leaves him, thus leaving the door open for more philandering. Strangely she never reports him to the police. If Bob were around today, he would probably appear on crime watch for internet grooming.

Sue starts going out with an Asian boy, whose performance is the high point of this film. Although he initially announces his intentions by stating "I'd like to take her to bed" when standing next to her (yes the film really is this subtle) there seems to be some genuine tenderness between them till he, inexplicably and out of character, turns into a woman beater. This happens when Sue is given a lift home by Bob from the hospital where Rita has just miscarried. This miscarriage is played for laughs, although, like everything else in this film, it falls flat. That the loss of a baby does not trouble the flow should not surprise us. Not one character is shown any compassion in this cynical film.

But joy! Sue and Rita get back together again and move in with Bob. So in the end, Bob is free from his wife, has a big house and two sex obsessed schoolgirls in his bed.

Who says being a selfish sex predator doesn't pay?

This is a dreary sex farce rewritten for the sensibilities of Channel 4 Guardian Readers, a sort of No Sex Please We're British meets The Jeremy Kyle Show. The long tradition of middle-class pseuds sneering down at the antics of the underclass has more recently found itself a home on channel 4 once more in the appropriately named Shameless.

The film ends with a shot of Bob's arse-crack suspended in air as he is about to pounce on the two girls in his bed. That somehow sums up this sleazy unpleasant piece of trash.

Sad and funny and bleak and positive

[shell-26 · 8/10 · 21 February 2000]

This was an excellent low-budget film full of strong performances. Set in the North of England it follows two schoolgirls and a philandering husband on what appears to be a dirty and sleazy romp. But none of these people deserve their grim and loveless lives. None of them are "bad" and there are no victims. This is not so much a morality play as an immorality play. When Bob says that his wife doesn't understand him, he is right. The "seduction" scene in the back of his car is one of the best ever. With hindsight, it is impossible to tell who is being seduced.

Made for TV by FilmFour the camerawork reminds me of a soap opera. The scenes are largely drab and impoverished but Rita, Sue and Bob have fun ! When they are together the world seems a better place. The scene at the dance with the terrible 80's party band Black Lace is wonderful, they are having a such a great time and it is in such contrast to their grim reality.

The ending is wonderful.

Unpleasant film

[lockhartpaa · 2/10 · 13 October 2012]

I felt very uncomfortable watching this film, yes it is a great portrayal of 1980's Britain but the two girls in question were school girls, both seemed pretty vulnerable, one certainly came from a home with a loveless and violent father. The two girls needed protection from predators like Bob but the film almost seemed to celebrate the affair. There was nothing funny about it. Some of the comments on here sum thing up, they call the girls scrubbers, slags etc. Well they're not, they're schoolchildren. We have the Jimmy Saville story breaking and at the same time the Rochdale abuse case and the same sort of language was being used there by the authorities when in fact what was happening was abuse, adults who should have been protecting children dismissing them as prostitutes and slags.

Bob was employing those girls as a babysitter, as such he was an employer and had a duty of care, instead he abused them.

Life in the 1980's on a Yorkshire council estate

[sgoodlad · 10/10 · 20 June 2011]

A movie that has not lost any of it's excellence since it was first produced 15 or more years ago.

The opening scene of Willie Ross as Sue's father walking home from the pub drunk is hilarious and sets the tone of the whole film. I have to give maximum credit to Willie Ross the actor, as I have never seen a drunk played so perfectly by any other actor - you will believe he really is permanently drunk.

It's a film that can be watched many times over as you will miss some great lines and acting nuances each time. For instance; During the street argument Sue's father calls Rita a slag and Bob takes his coat off to face down Sue's dad. But, he can't look Sue's father in the eye as his head is bobbing around too much because he is drunk. It only lasts a few seconds but Bob is trying to follow the fathers eyes to stare him out and can't. -hilarious!

The film is full of these moments.

It's gritty and sad and wonderful in equal measure.

Brilliant from beginning to end....

[ben_catt · 5 July 2002]

This film really should be used in schools as a realistic portrayal of English life in the eighties.

There are some literally side splittingly funny scenes in this film. The most memorable are those of Sue's alcoholic Dad and his antics. I don't know if the director was meaning to show him as being really funny but some of the things he comes out with are absolutely brilliant.

My favourite moment is when Sue gets back from baby sitting the first time. His quote "cos there's nowt opp-en! That's how!" is brilliant.

Watch this film, it will make you laugh out loud.

Thatcher's Britain with her Knickers Down

[JamesHitchcock · 4/10 · 2 February 2022]

The British tradition of "kitchen sink" social realism, so important in the late fifties and early sixties, largely disappeared from the cinema screen in the seventies; "Spring and Port Wine" from 1969 seemed to mark the end of the line. That does not mean that it disappeared altogether as the genre found a new home on television, especially as part of the BBC's "Play for Today" series. Some of the directors who cut their teeth on that series moved on to making feature films when "kitchen sink" started to recolonise the cinema in the eighties. Alan Clarke, the director of this film, was one of them.

Like many of the social realist dramas of the fifties and sixties which were adaptations of contemporary plays and novels, "Rita, Sue and Bob Too" is based on a literary source, in this case two stage plays by Andrea Dunbar. The action takes place on the Buttershaw Estate in Bradford, the council estate on which Dunbar herself lived. Rita and Sue are two teenaged schoolgirls who earn some money by babysitting for a middle-class couple, Bob and Michelle. Both girls become sexually involved with Bob, and they regularly meet for threesomes, generally in the back of his car while he is driving them back home. The film explores the complications which ensue after Michelle discovers her husband's infidelity. There is also a sub-plot about Sue's relationship with her Asian boyfriend, Aslam.

The film was advertised under the slogan "Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down", and that just about sums it up, an uneasy mixture of sex comedy and social realist drama. Imagine "No Sex Please, We're British" directed by Ken Loach. The estate is depicted as a grim, run-down, joyless slum, all boarded-up buildings, graffiti and broken windows. The people who live there are depicted as idle, shiftless, violent, physically unattractive, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed; Aslam initially seems an exception, but he quickly reveals himself to be a violent bully. You will hear the "f-word" used a lot in this film, generally as an expletive rather than in its literal sense. (The word which Rita and Sue normally use for having sex is "jump", pronounced "joomp", a Northern expression rarely used in this sense in Southern England). Dunbar and Clarke's view of the middle classes seems just as unfavourable; the upmarket housing development where Bob and Michelle live is smarter and tidier than Buttershaw, but no less bleak and soulless.

It is hardly surprising that Dunbar made herself very unpopular with her neighbours on the Buttershaw Estate; what is more surprising (and to her credit) is that she continued living there, unlike many working-class writers who disappear into middle-class suburbia after their first literary hit. She was to live there for the rest of her life; she was to die at the tragically early age of 29 in 1990, only three years after this film was made. She had a serious alcohol problem and died after being taken ill in The Beacon, the pub (since demolished) shown in the opening scenes. Clarke was also to die prematurely in 1990, at the age of 54.

That "Thatcher's Britain" tag has been taken up by some of the reviewers on this board, but the film does not have a lot to say about Thatcherism. It may have been made in the eighties during her premiership, but the lives of the Sues and Ritas of this world would not in truth have been any different in Heath's or Callaghan's Britain during the seventies, or for that matter in Major's or Blair's Britain during the nineties.

Indeed, things are probably not too different in Johnson's Britain today, but I would agree with the reviewer who wrote that a film like this could not be made in 2022. The actresses who played them were both twenty, but Rita and Sue are supposed to be, at most, sixteen, possibly only fifteen, in which case Bob would be breaking the law. In 1987 nobody seems to have worried too much about that, but in 2022 a film about a forty-year-old man having sex with two teenage, possibly underage, girls could only be made, if at all, if he were to be portrayed as a creepy sexual predator. Which is not how Bob is portrayed at all. George Costigan plays him as a likeable Jack-the-lad figure, and Dunbar and Clarke are surprisingly sympathetic to his belief that, as he is not getting sexual satisfaction from his wife, he is entitled to look for it elsewhere, even with a couple of schoolgirls young enough to be his daughters.

Most of the earlier "kitchen sink" films, such as "Look Back in Anger", "A Kind of Loving", "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" and "Spring and Port Wine", were serious dramas rather than comedies, although they might have had occasional humorous moments. With "Rita, Sue and Bob Too" it's the other way around. The film occasionally touches on serious topics, but it's essentially a comedy. Or perhaps I should say it's meant to be a comedy, because there was little about it that I found funny. It relies too heavily on coarse vulgarity, and I always had the suspicion that it was laughing at working-class Yorkshire people rather than laughing with them. And attempts to get laughs about underage sex are never going to be funny. Well, perhaps they might have been considered so in 1987, but then the past is another country. 4/10.

Best friends discover sex and the importance of their friendship

[pocketearwig · 10/10 · 18 February 2007]

Not bleak at all. I first saw this film at the cinema. I was 16 and from comparatively affluent Cambridge (UK), I had no idea people lived such lives. At the time I found the sex scenes surprising for their realism having been spoiled by Hollywood's romantic handling of it. But sitting in the cinema with my best friend I remember delighting in the development of the friendship between the two girls.

So when it came on telly recently I thought I'd give it 10 minutes to see why I'd always remembered it so fondly. I'm glad I did. I think the first reviewer is too used attaching the word bleak to anything "northern" or "realistic". I found it anything but. The film *is* a comment on Thatcher's Britain but although the backdrop to the story is a run-down estate and the characters are financially poor the story is tender, funny and celebratory.

The title shows what the film is about, it's about Rita and Sue, Bob's only an afterthought. Throughout the whole relationship the girls are in control of the hapless Bob who's sex-drive leads to his making some pretty unwise choices, Rita and Sue are his enthusiastic conspirators. The relationship with Bob tests their friendship but it is ultimately made stronger.

The film has some wonderful moments, Sue's father is the most convincing drunk I've ever seen. The end is fantastic, look out for the Union Jack in that great last shot.