Main Cast: Alexandra Pigg, Alfred Molina, Peter Firth, Margi Clarke, Tracy Lea
Release Year: 1985
Country: UK/BE
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A romantic farce that enjoys but never makes fun of its protagonists, this is an entertaining story about the unlikely pairing of a Liverpool factory worker and a Russian sailor. The romantic Teresa (Margi Clarke)works in a chicken factory and looks forward to the men she might meet on the weekends. Her friend Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) is living on state aid and is fairly casual about how she can pick up a little extra cash. One weekend the two women set out for the dancehall with someone else's hard-earned money, lifted by Teresa, and there they meet two Russian sailors, Peter (Peter Firth) and Sergei (Alfred Molina). For Elaine and Peter, it is love at first sight, and they spend the rest of the night talking and the following day wandering around Liverpool, hand in hand. When the dreaded parting of the ways comes at last, Elaine is furious that a small thing like politics has to keep them apart -- so she writes a letter to Brezhnev, with surprising results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Ted Wood - Mick; Susan Dempsey - Girl in Yellow Pedal Pushers; Carl Chase - Taxi Driver; Angela Clarke - Josie; Neil Cunningham - Foreign Office Official; Robbie Dee - Charlie; Syd Newman - Dimitri; Sharon Power - Charlie's Girl Friend; Eddie Ross - Rayner; Mandy Walsh - Mother; Frank Clarke - Vinny; Paul Beringer - Boy at Party; Joey Kaye - Father; Jeanette Votel - Girl on Bus; Wendy Votel - Girl on Bus; Ken Campbell - Reporter; John Carr - Sweaty Arse
Credit
Mark Reynolds - Costume Designer, Chris Bernard - Director, Lesley Walker - Editor, Alan Gill - Composer (Music Score), Viv Howells - Makeup, Lez Brothrston - Production Designer, Nick Englefield - Production Designer, Jonathan Swain - Production Designer, Bruce McGowan - Cinematographer, Frank Clarke - Producer, Janet Goddard - Producer, Caroline Spack - Producer, Frank Clarke - Screenwriter
Two Liverpool lasses, Teresa and Elaine meet two Russian sailors, Sergei and Peter and hook up for a night of fun and frolics. Teresa is looking for sex and a smile, Elaine wants love, romance and the dream of a life far away from the grime of the Liverpool docklands.
Amongst other themes, it reflects the constraints on working class women's dreams. It also shows that many people do not get the chance to aspire to anything other than the humdrum lives they find before them as they walk away from school. Some of the characters worked in what they called "the chicken factory", a slaughterhouse.
