Pat and Margaret
Encyclopedia
Pat and Margaret is a British
television film written by comedian
Victoria Wood
. The story follows sisters Margaret, a cook, and Pat, a successful actress in the United States, after they are reunited on a television programme after spending 27 years apart. It stars Wood alongside frequent comedy partner Julie Walters
in the title roles, and features other past collaborators of Wood, including Thora Hird
, Celia Imrie
and Duncan Preston
. First aired in 1994 on BBC One
, the film was directed by Gavin Millar
and produced by Ruth Caleb.
After gaining over 10 million viewers, it won a Broadcasting Press Guild
award and was nominated for two BAFTA
awards. It drew comparisons with northern English dramatist Alan Bennett
for its complex characterisation and observational dialogue.
) works as a cook at a motorway service station. She joins her colleagues on a works outing to London to see a recording of Magic Moments, a Surprise, Surprise-style television series. Pat Bedford (Julie Walters
), star of an American soap, returns to England to promote her book. During the recording, Pat is backstage and Margaret is in the audience. To her surprise, Margaret is invited onto the stage by the host (Anne Reid
), who talks about her sister Patricia; she didn't get on with their mother and left 27 years ago. To their surprise, Pat and Margaret are reunited on stage and embrace. After the programme ends, Pat doesn't want to speak to Margaret or find out more about her, and tells her to leave. She takes an instant dislike to her and "can't afford to have her here", fearing the damage to her reputation. However Pat's assistant Claire (Celia Imrie
) sympathises with her and Margaret returns with Pat to her luxury hotel.
In the morning, Pat tries to pay Margaret off for the second time, but fails. A Magic Moments film crew arrives to follow them getting to know each other for the next week, and Pat resigns herself to staged bonding for the cameras. Margaret phones her boyfriend Jim (Duncan Preston
), but his disapproving mother (Thora Hird
) withholds the message. Journalist Stella (Deborah Grant) has heard there is a Vera in a nursing home in Pat's home town and heads north to investigate with photographer Billy (Don Henderson
). After reading about a Vera in the newspapers, Pat persuades Margaret to accompany her to stop Vera talking to the press. One step behind Stella, they eventually find her (Joane Hall), but it's not their mother. Meanwhile Jim goes to London to find Margaret, where he meets Claire, who tells him Margaret has headed north. Claire keeps him company on his return visit, but she has forgotten Pat's luggage and they wait with Jim's mother for them to arrive. Stella finds out Pat was pregnant at 15 and gains a photograph of Vera; she later identifies her in photographs related to another story and goes to visit her.
After vising their childhood home and Claire failing to meet them at Pat's hotel, Margaret takes Pat to her bedsit, where they continue to get to know each other. Margaret reveals Vera was imprisoned after Pat left, and Pat reveals she was thrown out because she became pregnant; she returned after giving birth but the house was empty. In between, Jim arrives with Pat's bag, and an irritated Margaret ends their relationship because of his interfering mother. To get Pat to turn up at Vera's, Stella spots Jim and Claire, and passes him a note, saying it's from a fan. Pat takes Margaret to the Swiss Cottage Café where Pat once worked; Claire joins them for dinner. The owner is selling up, and Claire passes Pat the note. It directs them to their mother (Shirley Stelfox
), where Pat and Vera argue about their past. Stella and Billy appear; she has found out about Pat's tragic life, describing it as a "marvellous story". She proposes a sympathetic story of Pat's life, if Pat, Margaret and Vera exclusively tell her everything.
The story concludes with Margaret and Jim making up; he decides to leave his mother and move in with Margaret. At the airport, Pat fails in persuading Margaret to fly back to the United States with her, handing her a set of keys and a letter. In the VIP lounge, Pat waits with Vera: "they're very big at the moment, celebrities' mums". The final scene shows Margaret and Jim happy, clearing up at the Swiss Cottage Café.
in 1981, directed by Gavin Millar
and produced by Ruth Caleb. An early draft of the script was rejected by LWT
, who said "a film is not a sketch, you know".
Filming locations included Blackburn in Lancashire
, Acton
in west London
, and Heston services
on the M4
.
After going on location during filming, James Rampton for The Independent
said that the film "contains many lines of vintage Victoria. ... And – judging from the script – the film is not a three-minute idea tortuously spun out over 90, but a living, breathing feature, with characters rather than caricatures and pathos rather than punchlines." Writing for Screenonline
, Mark Duguid says the drama is Wood's "most ambitious, rounded and mature work to date" and describes it as "rapturously received". On Wood's comparisons with Alan Bennett
, he says that she "certainly shares Bennett's gift for characterisation and his ear for comic but natural dialogue". The Daily Telegraph
' s Judith Woods described the film, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
, Dinnerladies
and Acorn Antiques
as "character-led television gems".
The film won the Broadcasting Press Guild
Award for best single drama, and the best actress and best screenplay awards at the Reims Television Festival. The drama was also nominated for two British Academy Television Awards
in 1994: best single drama, and best actress for Wood.
on 2 July 1997 and on Region 1 DVD
on 21 May 2007.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television film written by comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
. The story follows sisters Margaret, a cook, and Pat, a successful actress in the United States, after they are reunited on a television programme after spending 27 years apart. It stars Wood alongside frequent comedy partner Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
in the title roles, and features other past collaborators of Wood, including Thora Hird
Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
, Celia Imrie
Celia Imrie
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
and Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
. First aired in 1994 on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, the film was directed by Gavin Millar
Gavin Millar
Gavin Millar is a Scottish film director, critic and television presenter.Millar's early career was as a film critic, most notably for The Listener from 1970 to 1984. He also contributed to Sight and Sound and The London Review of Books. With the film director Karel Reisz, he co-authored The...
and produced by Ruth Caleb.
After gaining over 10 million viewers, it won a Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
award and was nominated for two BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
awards. It drew comparisons with northern English dramatist Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
for its complex characterisation and observational dialogue.
Plot
Margaret Mottershead (Victoria WoodVictoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
) works as a cook at a motorway service station. She joins her colleagues on a works outing to London to see a recording of Magic Moments, a Surprise, Surprise-style television series. Pat Bedford (Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
), star of an American soap, returns to England to promote her book. During the recording, Pat is backstage and Margaret is in the audience. To her surprise, Margaret is invited onto the stage by the host (Anne Reid
Anne Reid
Anne Reid, MBE is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, best known for her roles as Valerie Tatlock in Coronation Street and Jean in dinnerladies....
), who talks about her sister Patricia; she didn't get on with their mother and left 27 years ago. To their surprise, Pat and Margaret are reunited on stage and embrace. After the programme ends, Pat doesn't want to speak to Margaret or find out more about her, and tells her to leave. She takes an instant dislike to her and "can't afford to have her here", fearing the damage to her reputation. However Pat's assistant Claire (Celia Imrie
Celia Imrie
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
) sympathises with her and Margaret returns with Pat to her luxury hotel.
In the morning, Pat tries to pay Margaret off for the second time, but fails. A Magic Moments film crew arrives to follow them getting to know each other for the next week, and Pat resigns herself to staged bonding for the cameras. Margaret phones her boyfriend Jim (Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
), but his disapproving mother (Thora Hird
Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
) withholds the message. Journalist Stella (Deborah Grant) has heard there is a Vera in a nursing home in Pat's home town and heads north to investigate with photographer Billy (Don Henderson
Don Henderson
Don Henderson was an English actor whose film and TV work covered many years but is best remembered for his role as the fictional detective George Bulman...
). After reading about a Vera in the newspapers, Pat persuades Margaret to accompany her to stop Vera talking to the press. One step behind Stella, they eventually find her (Joane Hall), but it's not their mother. Meanwhile Jim goes to London to find Margaret, where he meets Claire, who tells him Margaret has headed north. Claire keeps him company on his return visit, but she has forgotten Pat's luggage and they wait with Jim's mother for them to arrive. Stella finds out Pat was pregnant at 15 and gains a photograph of Vera; she later identifies her in photographs related to another story and goes to visit her.
After vising their childhood home and Claire failing to meet them at Pat's hotel, Margaret takes Pat to her bedsit, where they continue to get to know each other. Margaret reveals Vera was imprisoned after Pat left, and Pat reveals she was thrown out because she became pregnant; she returned after giving birth but the house was empty. In between, Jim arrives with Pat's bag, and an irritated Margaret ends their relationship because of his interfering mother. To get Pat to turn up at Vera's, Stella spots Jim and Claire, and passes him a note, saying it's from a fan. Pat takes Margaret to the Swiss Cottage Café where Pat once worked; Claire joins them for dinner. The owner is selling up, and Claire passes Pat the note. It directs them to their mother (Shirley Stelfox
Shirley Stelfox
Shirley Stelfox is an English actress, who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She is best known as Edna Birch in British Soap Opera Emmerdale....
), where Pat and Vera argue about their past. Stella and Billy appear; she has found out about Pat's tragic life, describing it as a "marvellous story". She proposes a sympathetic story of Pat's life, if Pat, Margaret and Vera exclusively tell her everything.
The story concludes with Margaret and Jim making up; he decides to leave his mother and move in with Margaret. At the airport, Pat fails in persuading Margaret to fly back to the United States with her, handing her a set of keys and a letter. In the VIP lounge, Pat waits with Vera: "they're very big at the moment, celebrities' mums". The final scene shows Margaret and Jim happy, clearing up at the Swiss Cottage Café.
Production
The film was created and written by Wood, whose last full-length drama was Happy Since I Met YouHappy Since I Met You
Happy Since I Met You is a television play written by Victoria Wood, and broadcast on ITV on 9 August 1981.It stars Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Tracey Ullman and Jim Bowen and was directed by Baz Taylor as part of ITV's Screenplay series. In Happy Since I Met You, Duncan Preston, who would later...
in 1981, directed by Gavin Millar
Gavin Millar
Gavin Millar is a Scottish film director, critic and television presenter.Millar's early career was as a film critic, most notably for The Listener from 1970 to 1984. He also contributed to Sight and Sound and The London Review of Books. With the film director Karel Reisz, he co-authored The...
and produced by Ruth Caleb. An early draft of the script was rejected by LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
, who said "a film is not a sketch, you know".
Filming locations included Blackburn in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, Acton
Acton, London
Acton is a district of west London, England, located in the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross.At the time of the 2001 census, Acton, comprising the wards of East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 53,689 people...
in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and Heston services
Heston services
Heston services is a motorway service station on the M4 motorway in the London Borough of Hounslow, built on land that once formed part of the now defunct Heston Aerodrome. It is owned by MotoIt was featured briefly in the 2007 film Hot Fuzz.-Facilities:...
on the M4
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
.
Reception
The film was watched by more than 10 million viewers.After going on location during filming, James Rampton for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
said that the film "contains many lines of vintage Victoria. ... And – judging from the script – the film is not a three-minute idea tortuously spun out over 90, but a living, breathing feature, with characters rather than caricatures and pathos rather than punchlines." Writing for Screenonline
Screenonline
Screenonline is a Web site devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund.Reviews...
, Mark Duguid says the drama is Wood's "most ambitious, rounded and mature work to date" and describes it as "rapturously received". On Wood's comparisons with Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
, he says that she "certainly shares Bennett's gift for characterisation and his ear for comic but natural dialogue". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV was a British comedy sketch series starring comedienne Victoria Wood, with Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge...
, Dinnerladies
Dinnerladies
Dinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...
and Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two seasons of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. It was turned into a musical by Wood, opening in 2005.-Television version:...
as "character-led television gems".
The film won the Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Award for best single drama, and the best actress and best screenplay awards at the Reims Television Festival. The drama was also nominated for two British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
in 1994: best single drama, and best actress for Wood.
Home media
The film was released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on 2 July 1997 and on Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on 21 May 2007.