The Fool is a British film, produced and directed by Christine Edzard

Christine Edzard

Christine Edzard is a film director, writer, and costume designer. She is best known for her critically acclaimed film adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel, Little Dorrit , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay...

 in 1990 from a script by Edzard and Olivier Stockman.

The plot examines the double life of a humble clerk posing as a businessman and moving in upper social circles. Its detailed evocation of life in Victorian London drew on the books of London life by Henry Mayhew

Henry Mayhew

Henry Mayhew was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days...

.

The cast included Derek Jacobi

Derek Jacobi

Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...

, Cyril Cusack

Cyril Cusack

Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...

, Ruth Mitchell, Maria Aitken

Maria Aitken

Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken is an English actress, writer, producer and director.Aitken was born in Dublin, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and socialite Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and...

, Irina Brook

Irina Brook

Irina Brook is a British stage actress, director and producer. The daughter of film and theatre director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry, she was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2002 by the French Ministry of Culture...

, Paul Brooke

Paul Brooke

Paul Brooke is an English actor of film, television, and radio. He is the father of actor Tom Brooke.He and Ernie Fosselius played Malakili the Rancor Keeper in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He played British Conservative politician Ian Gow in the 2004 BBC series The Alan Clark Diaries...

, Richard Caldicot

Richard Caldicot

Richard Caldicot was a British actor famed for his role of Commander Povey in the BBC radio series The Navy Lark. He also appeared often on television, memorably as the obstetrician delivering Betty Spencer's baby in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.His father was a civil servant and he attended Dulwich...

, James Cameron

James Cameron

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

, Jim Carter, Jonathan Cecil

Jonathan Cecil

Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil , more commonly known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English theatre, film and television actor.-Early life:...

, Maria Charles

Maria Charles

Maria Charles is an English actress who carved a niche for herself on television playing clingy Jewish mothers. She appeared in the memorable Play for Today entry, "Bar Mitzvah Boy", and played Maureen Lipman's character's mother in the sitcom Agony...

 and Auriol Smith

Auriol Smith

Auriol Smith is an English actress and theatre director. She is a founder member and associate director of the Orange Tree Theatre. She started her career as an actor, but now divides her time between acting and directing.-Early years:...

.

Jacobi and Cusack had previously worked with Edzard on her film adaptation of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit (film)

Little Dorrit is a 1988 film adaptation of the novel Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It was written and directed by Christine Edzard, and produced by John Brabourne and Richard B. Goodwin. The music, by Giuseppe Verdi, was arranged by Michael Sanvoisin.The film stars Derek Jacobi as Arthur...

in 1988.

The atmospheric camerawork was by British cinematographer Robin Vidgeon.