It's 1969. Living in a squalid Camden flat and surviving on a diet of booze and pills, two "resting" actors (Paul McGann, pictured left and Richard E. Grant, right) decide to take a short break at a country house to "rejuvenate".
Faced with bad weather, altercations with the locals, and the unexpected arrival (and advances) of Withnail's Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths), the pair's wits and friendship are tested to the limits.
Released in 1987, this wonderfully funny film quickly became a student cult-classic. A desperate character study of late-1960s frustration, it's directed by Bruce Robinson. Semi-autobiographical, it's based on the director's own experiences as a young actor living in Camden with deadbeat thespian Vivian MacKerrell and his encounters with the predatory Franco Zeffirelli. In his breakthrough performance, Richard E. Grant gets the choicest lines, while Paul McGann's role is suitably understated.
Withnail and I is a Film programme that first aired in 1987 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
