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BBC Play of the Month: The Country Wife (1977)
Helen Mirren is the perfect Country Wife.
A notorious seducer pretends to be impotent in order to lull husbands who fear to be made cuckolds. Anthony Andrews is just the man. An acquaintance has wed a simple country girl in the hope she will not be tempted to betray him. But she is Helen Mirren, some decades before she became a Dame. She is hot. She is hot to see London; hot to see a play; and hot to take a lover. Everybody does it in London. She is memorable despite what another reviewer has said. Who knows, maybe the other reviewer is impotent. The plot is as complicated as anything by Shakespeare. There are misunderstandings, forged letters, double meanings and a plot resolution at the end whereby everybody gets away with everything. That's the important thing, nobody gets hurt. It is not a spoiler to say it's a comedy, not a tragedy. Mirren plays her character to show naiveté with inventiveness. There is nothing dumb about this country girl. She is just inexperienced. But she is determined to become experienced. Mirren is wonderful. You should also check her out in the BBC television production of Balzac's Cousin Bette from 1971. She plays the demimonde Valerie Marneffe. She is hot.