Richard E Grant talks about how he's handling the lockdown. A The Graham Norton Show video. Are we going to get left behind and become a casualty?
“This was before student loans, when students where still very much like the characters.
We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.
We want them here and we want them now!” was voted one of the greatest film one-liners (Credit: Alamy)The “hard-drinking” part of that scenario can’t be overstated.
We want them here and we want them now!” And alcohol gushes so copiously through the story that a Withnail and I drinking game was inevitable. The trip appears to be cursed from the start as they arrive to bad weather, no supplies and the cottage is without running water or power. Richard E Grant has been delighting fans of his most famous role, in cult 1987 film Withnail and I, by quoting famous lines from it on a … “After two weeks he wanted to close the film down,” says Cooper. “It was such a gem,” says Cooper, on the phone from his home in Germany. (Credit: HandMade Films) In 1969, two substance-abusing, unemployed actors retreat to the countryside for a holiday that proves disastrous. It follows the eponymous duo of actors as they escape to a secluded holiday cottage in order to distract themselves from their faltering careers.While the film did not make a big box office impact on release, it frequently appears in lists of the best comedies ever made, as well as the best British films of all time.Grant has recently been seen in several major roles, both as Allegiant General Pryde in The star’s charming personality while campaigning for an Oscar for the latter movie earned him his own cult appeal online.Trump says Democrats want to ‘blow up’ Mount Rushmore and take down Washington MonumentCaitlyn Jenner: I wasn't a good parent at the height of gender dysphoria battleJohn Lewis to sell more pyjamas, comfortable clothes and high-end sportswear from Stella McCartney in bid to 'modernise' its brandsUS Open 2020: It p***** me off – Thiem annoyed by Red Bull incidentWhy your 'healthy' breakfast choices are making you put on weightBritons say 2035 deadline to switch to electric cars is too soonInteractive map shows where next coronavirus hotspots are likeliestPlane food, grounded: 'You can buy airline meals on land now.
But getting real comes with fear. That for me is what Withnail and I taps into.”As McGann says, it’s a cunning screenplay. But somehow the film is gripping from start to finish. Grant co-stars as his Byronic flatmate, Withnail, an embittered alcoholic who stalks around in a tweed overcoat, firing scabrous insults at a world which has thus far neglected to hand him the role of Hamlet. “It’s really the most cunning of screenplays,” says McGann.Uncle Monty’s advances were allegedly based on Robinson’s experience of rebuffing director Franco Zeffirelli’s attentions during the filming of Romeo and Juliet (Credit: Alamy)The screenplay in question found its way to HandMade Films, the company co-founded by George Harrison, the ex-Beatle. All the same, he went on to deliver one of the most accurate portrayals of a drunkard ever filmed.As uproarious as the boozy scenes are, the characters eventually realise that they can’t drink their way through their problems forever. The British star has named the sketch ‘Withnail and I isolation quotes’. Another issue was the almost total absence of a plot.Based on Robinson’s own experiences, the film introduces two struggling young actors who share a freezing and frighteningly unsanitary flat in Camden Town in London in 1969.
They cost $2 each. ���������� Bruce Robinson wrote these wonderful lines for WITHNAIL to utter, which will hopefully usher in your weekend with a chuckle. It played in a handful of London venues and then it was gone.”In the years that followed, though, Withnail and I came to define the term ‘cult movie’. The only thing you’ve been in that I’ve been in is this f**king bath!’, before collapsing into giggles. British students, at least. Social isolation is the objective physical separation from other people (living alone), while loneliness is the subjective distressed feeling of being alone or separated. The coolness of their poverty somehow allowed us to put up with ours.”Sure enough, while Withnail and I is set in the 1960s – “the greatest decade in the history of mankind”, as Danny puts it – it certainly didn’t feel like a period piece to students in the 1990s.
I want to see that film, so we’ve got to make it.’ It was as naive, innocent, simple and beautiful as that.”And so Withnail and I was completed – and Robinson was pleased with the resulting “masterpiece”, as he called it. Harrison was keen to finance offbeat British projects, but O’Brien had his sights set on big-budget Hollywood-style event movies. ‘Withnail and I’ directed by Bruce Robinson came into the world rather quietly in 1987 with a limited release in cinemas. I didn’t do this very often, but on this occasion I went to George and said, ‘That film that we both love, I think Denis wants to abandon it, but I beg you, will you help me, will you intercede on my behalf?’ And George said, ‘Yeah, of course. Release date: 24 April 2020. For those of you lacking a country pile (with stables and groom to match) in which to isolate, Withnail serves as a timely reminder of the realities. That was a tragedy.” But once Withnail and I was released on video, people did start talking about it: specifically, students.
“As he grew more and more upbeat after seeing dailies I knew it must be good,” says McGann.
“Reviewers not so much.
Dubbing it ‘Withnail & Isolation’, Richard has recorded a daily clip to keep fans (and himself) entertained during the coronavirus lockdown. Decided to spice up quarantine...shaved the top of my head and most of the beard that I had off.