Margery & Gladys | |
---|---|
Written by | John Flanagan Andrew McCulloch |
Directed by | Geoffrey Sax |
Starring | Penelope Keith June Brown Roger Lloyd-Pack Martin Freeman |
Music by | Philip Pope |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producer | Sharon Bloom |
Producer | Tim Hutchinson |
Cinematography | Chris O'Dell |
Editor | Nick Arthurs |
Running time | 98 minutes |
Production company | Carlton Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 21 September 2003 |
Margery & Gladys is a one-off television drama film, first broadcast on 21 September 2003. Starring Penelope Keith and June Brown as the title characters, it was produced by Carlton Television for ITV and directed by Geoffrey Sax. [1] Upon first broadcast, it was watched by a total of 7.91 million viewers. [2]
The film was also screened on RTÉ One in Ireland. It was repeated on ITV3 on 6 March 2016, its first repeat in the United Kingdom since its original broadcast in 2003. The film was released on DVD in Australia in July 2012 by Madman Entertainment. [3]
Recently widowed Margery Heywood (Penelope Keith) and her cleaning woman Gladys Gladwell (June Brown) disturb a would-be burglar breaking into Margery's house in Kent. Margery attacks the burglar with a heavy glass vase, and knocks him unconscious. Believing that she has killed him, she panics and flees the house with Gladys, leaving behind her handbag. In Gladys's car, the two women decide to try to reach Margery's son Graham in Milton Keynes, hoping he will give them shelter and money, but the trip turns into a comedy of disasters.
They are forced to break into a pharmacy to obtain insulin for Gladys's diabetes, 'do a runner' from a petrol station and dodge police cameras on the M25. Margery is devastated to learn of a twenty-year affair between her late husband and Gladys, and that her son knew of it. His father also secretly bought a boat and planned to sail away with a childhood friend. With the police, led by about-to-retire Detective Inspector Woolley (Roger Lloyd-Pack) on their trail, the two women drive to Fleetwood, only to meet the childhood friend. The boat, it seems, was purchased with stolen money. After a night on the town at nearby Blackpool, the two women take the boat and sail off to the Caribbean.
Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund after his death in 1989, and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.
Roger Anthony Lloyd-Pack was an English actor. He is best known for playing Trigger in Only Fools and Horses from 1981 to 2003, and Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley from 1994 to 2007. He later starred as Tom in The Old Guys with Clive Swift. He is also well known for the role of Barty Crouch Sr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and for his appearances in Doctor Who as John Lumic in the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". He was sometimes credited without the hyphen in his surname. He died in 2014 from pancreatic cancer.
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