Margery and Gladys
Encyclopedia
Margery and Gladys is a made-for-TV film released in 2003. It was directed by Geoffrey Sax
.
) and her cleaning woman Gladys Gladwell (June Brown
) disturb a would-be burglar breaking into Margery's house in Kent
. Margery attacks the burglar with a heavy glass
vase, and knocks him unconscious. Believing that she has killed him, she panics and flees the house with Gladys, leaving behind her handbag
.
In Gladys's car, the two women decide to try to reach Margery's son Graham in Milton Keynes
, hoping he'll give them shelter and money, but the trip turns into a comedy of disasters. They are forced to break into a pharmacy
to obtain insulin
for Gladys's diabetes, 'do a runner' from a petrol station and dodge police cameras on the M25
.
Margery is devastated to learn of a twenty-year affair between her late husband and Gladys - and that her son knew of it. His father also secretly bought a boat and planned to sail away with a childhood friend.
With the police, led by about-to-retire D I Woolley (Roger Lloyd Pack
) on their trail, the two women drive to Fleetwood
, only to meet the childhood friend. The boat, it seems, was purchased with stolen money.
After a night on the town at nearby Blackpool
, the two women take the boat and sail off to the Caribbean
.
Geoffrey Sax
Geoffrey Sax is a British film and television director, who has worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and popular drama productions in both the UK and the United States....
.
Plot
Recently-widowed Margery Heywood (Penelope KeithPenelope Keith
Penelope Anne Constance Keith, CBE, DL is an English actress.Having started her television career in the 1950s, Penelope Keith became a household name in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when she played Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life...
) and her cleaning woman Gladys Gladwell (June Brown
June Brown
June Muriel Brown, MBE is a British actress, best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders and for making other high profile television appearances on shows such as Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Minder, The Bill and...
) disturb a would-be burglar breaking into Margery's house in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. Margery attacks the burglar with a heavy glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
vase, and knocks him unconscious. Believing that she has killed him, she panics and flees the house with Gladys, leaving behind her handbag
Handbag
A handbag, or purse in American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag that is often fashionably designed, typically used by women, to hold personal items such as wallet/coins, keys, cosmetics, a hairbrush, pepper spray, cigarettes, mobile phone etc....
.
In Gladys's car, the two women decide to try to reach Margery's son Graham in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, hoping he'll give them shelter and money, but the trip turns into a comedy of disasters. They are forced to break into a pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
to obtain insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
for Gladys's diabetes, 'do a runner' from a petrol station and dodge police cameras on the M25
M25
M25 or M-25 may be:* M-25 Dromader Mikro, a variant of the Polish PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader agricultural aircraft* M-25 , a road connecting Port Huron and Bay City* the engine of the Mercedes-Benz W25 GP race car...
.
Margery is devastated to learn of a twenty-year affair between her late husband and Gladys - and that her son knew of it. His father also secretly bought a boat and planned to sail away with a childhood friend.
With the police, led by about-to-retire D I Woolley (Roger Lloyd Pack
Roger Lloyd Pack
Roger Lloyd-Pack is an English actor known for his roles in the TV shows The Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools and Horses and The Old Guys.-Career:...
) on their trail, the two women drive to Fleetwood
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...
, only to meet the childhood friend. The boat, it seems, was purchased with stolen money.
After a night on the town at nearby Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, the two women take the boat and sail off to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.