More actors setting up by themselves! This time it was Albert Finney and Michael Medwin in 1965, cracking off two years later with Finney directing himself as disillusioned Roller-riding author Charlie Bubbles, taking PA Liza Minelli back up north for a dose of reality. There followed, amongst others, beautifully dislocated Peter ‘War Game’ Watkins/Johnny Speight sci-fi musical Privilege, with Paul ‘middle middle two’ Jones as a super-famous pop star at the mercy of manipulating moneymen; If… and O Lucky Man!; ‘Best booter’-tastic Bolton family life-slice Spring and Port Wine; Tom Stoppard short The Engagement, with David Warner desperately trying to come up with the readies for an expensive ring; Finney’s bingo-calling Bogart routine Gumshoe; and latterly thoroughly obscure Doris Lessing sci-fi Memoirs of a Survivor, with Julie Christie having various ‘episodes’ in a post-catastrophic Britain while everyone worships a giant egg. Hugh Grant’s Simian Films judged ‘unlikely’ to match this kind of output.
