Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Jackson Booth-Millard Directed by Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake), I vaguely knew the concept of this one-off drama in the Play for Today series, and a few clips of it looked interesting, so when I got the opportunity I didn't miss it. Basically eccentric and snobbish Beverly Moss (Alison Stean) with husband Laurence (Tim Stern) have invited their new neighbours Angela (Janine Duvitski) and Tony (John Salthouse) round for drinks. She has also asked divorced neighbour Susan 'Sue' Lawson (Harriet Reynolds) to come while her daughter Abigail has her fifteenth birthday party downstairs. Laurence stays for a little while and sits back while Beverly tries to entertain and serve drinks to her guests making rather silly small talk, and then he leaves for a quick job. Beverly and the guests talk about easy to drop subjects such as their marriages, children and taste in music, while the host doesn't take a no for an answer asking them to have more alcoholic drinks, and she forces them to share her opinion. Laurence returns to this pretty dull atmosphere where the alcohol is slowly taking effect, and Beverly is resorting to not only boasting, being insensitive and forceful, but it gets worse. Beverly starts flirting with with Tony right in front of her husband, and he tries to get his own back with his snappy attitude when putting on music and asking them to eat and drink stuff. As time goes by Sue does worry a little about what Abigail is getting up to downstairs, but Beverly with her trying to be nice ways wants Laurence and Tony to check, but she doesn't want a fuss. Eventually the snapping from Laurence increases with the playing of the music, the dancing with each other, and the one that really does it, taste in art. It is when Beverly goes to fetch a painting Laurence really hates that the tantrums really kick off, the two female guests sit back with the two men shouting the odds. In the end, Beverly turns hateful to Laurence, who has a heart attack which turns out to be fatal, and Sue calls Abigail downstairs, and something bad happens to her too. You can tell with the one location and mostly made up of dialogue that this was based on a play, but it is actually quite realistic, I can situations similar that I have been in. No-one can imagine this without the central performance by Stean, with her odd voice, repetitive "there we go", "lovely" and "no go on" phrases, and just being completely up herself. It is cringing, and to be honest I found it more uncomfortable (in a good way) than funny, but that is what makes it so good, I would definitely recommend people watch it. Alison Stean was number 30 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses, Beverly was number 76 on The 100 Greatest TV Characters, the programme was number 18 on The 50 Greatest TV Dramas, and it was number 11 on The 100 Greatest TV Shows. Very good!

algoyo The best bit (for me) is when Beverley is putting on Donna Summer's "Love to Love You" and fixing herself a drink at the beginning of the play. She puts the needle on the record and at the same time she opens the drinks cabinet's sliding door directly above her head with her spare hand in a smooth, perfectly performed robotic motion. She then sits to consume her drink and, with the look of a Basilisk, surveys her domain. It is her appearance which really startles. Her red dress is of the finest polyester, but exposes her flesh in unflattering ways. She sometimes looks like a jellyfish, with the tendrils flapping away, or like some monster who has made a dress out of the leftover bits of red meat of her victims. Either way, you are in no doubt that Beverley is the hostess with the mostest. You know you are in for trouble when her husband Lawrence comes in and she pipes up "Hi". It's done in such a dissatisfied, unloving way, that you can see she's going to kill him one way or another.

Flea Man This is one of the worst films I ever saw, I can only compare it to a trip the dentist out of Little Shop of Horrors, followed by a quick shower in American History X, and finished off with a party in the cabin from Evil Dead. In short this unique film did everything in it's power to try and make me kill myself. It was tempting to end the pain as soon as possible but the person making me watch it assured me it didn't last too much longer. It was a family member making me endure the true nightmare that is Abigail's Party, if not related I would have cut this person out of my life completely for assaulting should with such awful viewing. When drunk I once got locked in a boiler-room where I was hiding for 16 hours and I would do that every day for a year if someone could give me back the time I spent watching this film. In short avoid it people, however if you have been un-lucky enough to view this monstrosity then the government has set up group counselling sessions. these are very helpful and have stemmed the murderous rage I felt at first. You can find details about these groups from you nearest citizen's advice bureau.

julian kennedy Abigail's Party: 2/10. This is a poorly lit (especially first half) extremely stagy TV show (basically a filmed play.) Highly regarded by some critics but at close to two hours with 5 very unpleasant people it hardly ranks as entertainment. The main character Beverly reminds one of Peg from Married with Children but with no Al to provide the counter pointing laughs she remains strangely unchallenged throughout. In fact the description of Abigail's Party as a comedy is a bit of a puzzler as this is drama writ large. A true character exercise only a stage actor could love. While insightful into the desperation of some of the middle class of England, countless movies and shows have exposed middle class foibles with better results. Even a half hour sitcom like "Keeping Up Appearances" covers the same ground more completely and with many more laughs. Truth be told these people would be miserable no matter what class they were in and like a trapped guest I was looking to leave Abigail's Party as soon as I could.