 First edition | |
| Author | Keith Waterhouse |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Publisher | Michael Joseph |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Media type | |
Billy Liar on the Moon is a 1975 comedy novel by the British writer Keith Waterhouse. It is the sequel to his 1959 work Billy Liar . [1] It continues the adventures of Billy Fisher, now grown up but continuing to live in a fantasy world.
Billy Fisher, aged 33, lives in Shepford, a (fictitious) town located somewhere south of Birmingham and close to the M1 motorway. He works in the Information and Publicity Department of Shepford District Council. Shepford is gradually losing what character it had to an ongoing process of insensitive redevelopment and replanning. One of Billy's roles is to help put a positive spin on this, and he is involved in preparing the latest edition of the town guidebook, Pageantry with Progress. He is married to Jeanette, and lives with her and his widowed mother in a 12th-floor flat on the Fairways estate. The marriage is uncomfortable: one cause of friction is that Jeanette has aspirations of moving to a bungalow (nicknamed by Billy "Mortgagedene") on the new out-of-town Mayfield development.
Billy is also involved in an extramarital affair with Helen Lightfoot, a married woman. This relationship is similarly strained, as Helen wants a higher level of emotional commitment from Billy, and often phones him at home or work (sometimes when drunk), attempting to bluff her way past his wife or secretaries by adopting various false identities. Billy's head of department is Reggie Rainbell, known to Billy as "Pisspot" on account of his heavy drinking. Rainbell is often absent from work, but is also approaching retirement: Billy hopes to succeed to his job. Meanwhile, Billy has an inner fantasy life, in which he and his alter ego, a wisecracking American named Oscar, exchange comments on the world around them.
Life becomes increasingly complicated. Billy has routinely reclaimed the costs of his dates with Helen as work-related expenses: there are now signs that a rival candidate for Rainbell's job, James Purchase of the Finance Department, is investigating these claims. Trying to cover up for an unwelcome visit from Helen at home, Billy claims that he has had a set of golf clubs stolen: the police (in the form of Detective Constable Jack Carpenter) become involved, and Billy is drawn into another convoluted web of deceit. His junior colleague, Hattersley, informs Geoffrey Lightfoot, Helen's husband, of his wife's infidelity, leading to an awkward confrontation. The influential Councillor Percy Drummond, whom Billy has been trying to impress, is revealed to have sold the Town Hall in a highly questionable deal. On a visit to view a show bungalow in Mayfield, Billy and Jeanette discover Helen and Detective Constable Carpenter naked in bed together.
The Shepford Festival, a local carnival event, descends into chaos, thanks in part to poor planning by Billy; and the published Pageantry with Progress is found to contain an offensive caption which Billy had written as a joke, but which Hattersley had surreptitiously inserted into the final copy. Nevertheless, Billy's failings are overshadowed by the very public arrest at the end of the Festival of both Drummond and Purchase on charges of corruption. Rainbell is given early retirement, and Hattersley is appointed his successor. Billy is offered (with little option to refuse) a transfer to a lower status job in the Rates Office. Jeanette announces that she is pregnant, and Billy reluctantly agrees to take out a mortgage on a bungalow.
Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs.
Prime Suspect is a British police procedural television series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, who rises to the rank of Detective Superintendent while confronting institutionalised sexism within the police force.
Scott Christopher Grimes is an American actor and singer. Some of his most prominent roles include appearances in the 1984 cult classic The Night They Saved Christmas, ER as Dr. Archie Morris, Party of Five as Will McCorkle, Band of Brothers as Technical Sergeant Donald Malarkey, and the animated sitcom American Dad!, voicing Steve Smith. He is also well known by cult movie fans for his role as Bradley Brown in the first two Critters films. Since 2017, he has been a regular on the Fox/Hulu sci-fi comedy drama The Orville as Gordon Malloy.
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 6 December 1992 until 5 April 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R. D. Wingfield. Writing credit for the three episodes in the first 1992 series went to Richard Harris.
Pie in the Sky is a British police comedy drama starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and first broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997, as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries.
The Last Detective is a British TV comedy drama series, broadcast on ITV between 7 February 2003 and 31 May 2007, starring Peter Davison as the title character, Detective Constable "Dangerous Davies". The series is based on the "Dangerous Davies" series of novels written by Leslie Thomas, and was filmed in the north London suburbs of Willesden, Neasden and Harlesden. The gentle but engrossing nature of the series was in stark contrast to other hard-hitting police dramas of the time, but this appeared to be a winning formula, becoming a surprise rating success.
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based on the work of the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime around Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour.
Palmetto is a 1998 neo-noir thriller film directed by Volker Schlöndorff with a screenplay by E. Max Frye. It is based on the 1961 novel Just Another Sucker by James Hadley Chase. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue and Gina Gershon.
Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii is the second novel based on the Monk television series. It was written in 2006 by Lee Goldberg.
Helen Fraser is a retired English actress, who has appeared in many television series since the early 1960s. For international audiences, she may be best known for her roles in Billy Liar (1963) and Repulsion (1965). She is also well known in Britain for portraying the role of miserable warder Sylvia Hollamby in the prison drama series Bad Girls. She appeared in the series from the first episode in 1999 until the last in 2006.
"Jess-Belle" is an episode of the American television science fiction and fantasy anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a young woman, whose name sounds like "Jezebel", spurned by the man she loves, becomes a witch in order to make him love her.
Edward Erskholme Clive was a Welsh stage actor and director who had a prolific acting career in Britain and America. He also played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood movies between 1933 and his death.
Billy Liar is a 1963 British CinemaScope comedy-drama film based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse. Directed by John Schlesinger, it stars Tom Courtenay as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher and Wilfred Pickles plays Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes, Finlay Currie and Leonard Rossiter also feature. The Cinemascope photography is by Denys Coop and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score.
Russell Hornsby is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Edward "Eddie" Sutton on ABC Family's Lincoln Heights, as Luke on the HBO drama In Treatment, as Detective Hank Griffin on the NBC series Grimm, and as Lyons in the movie Fences. He also played Carl Gatewood in the Showtime TV series The Affair, and as Charles Flenory in BMF.
Undertow is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by William Castle and starring Scott Brady, John Russell, Dorothy Hart and Peggy Dow. It is the story of an ex-con, a former Chicago mobster, who is accused of the murder of a high-ranking Chicago boss. The movie marks the second film to feature a young Rock Hudson and the first in which he received a film credit for his work.
Memphis Beat is an American crime comedy-drama television series created by Joshua Harto and Liz W. Garcia that aired on TNT from June 22, 2010, to August 16, 2011, with a total of 20 episodes spanning two seasons. It was produced by Smokehouse Productions, in association with Warner Horizon Television.
Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story is a 1991 American made-for-television crime drama film based on the true story of Pamela Smart seducing one of her 15-year-old students into sex and to murdering her husband, Gregg Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. It is directed by Joyce Chopra and stars Helen Hunt as Pamela Smart and Chad Allen as Billy Flynn, her 15-year-old lover. It originally aired on CBS on September 24, 1991, where it ranked #1 for the evening with a 15.9 rating and 26.0 share.
Billy Liar is a sitcom of 26 30-minute episodes over two series made by London Weekend Television in 1973–1974 which starred Jeff Rawle as Billy Fisher. In addition there was a short five-minute long special as part of the All Star Comedy Carnival broadcast on 25 December 1973.
 | This article about a comedy novel of the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |