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MovieMail's Review
Peter Wild travels back to 1960s working-class Bolton in this affectionate reminder of an England gone by.
Adapted from Bill Naughton’s 1967 play, Spring and Port Wine is as much an affectionate reminder of a England that possibly doesn’t exist any more (if indeed it ever did) as it is a line in the sand, marking the way in which the post-war austerity gave way to more liberal ideals.
James Mason is Rafe Compton, the stern patriarch of a large Bolton family comprising wife Daisy (played by Diana Coupland – best remembered for starring opposite Sid James in Bless this House), daughters Florence and Hilda (played respectively by Hannah Gordon and Susan George) and sons Harold and Wilfred (Likely Lad Rodney Bewes and Len Jones).
Of course it’s a little dated and a little quaint (a family dispute over an uneaten herring causes greater upset than a surprise pregnancy), but for all that there is a warmth and a tenderness, particularly in the final scenes between Mason and Coupland, that belies any distance between then and now. If you want to see what kitchen sink drama did next, this is essential.
"If you get the better of me lass, you'll be the first in this house that has!" James Mason stars in this family drama set in Bolton in the late 1960s.
Love and humour prevail as strict working class father Rafe Crompton (Mason) and his wife Daisy (Diana Coupland) struggle to cope with the ups and downs of bringing up their four children - Harold (Rodney Bewes), Florence (Hannah Gordon), Hilda (Susan George) and Wilfred (Len Jones) - against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society.
