---
title: "A Rather English Marriage"
year: 1998
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/a-rather-english-marriage"
fi1m_id: "a-rather-english-marriage"
imdb_id: "tt0164841"
tmdb_id: 47332
wikidata_id: "Q56356559"
fi1m_score: 75
critics_reviews: 2
published: "2026-10-07T12:45:24.930819+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T12:45:37.708665+00:00"
region: "NL"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# A Rather English Marriage (1998)

Directed by Paul Seed · 1h 44m · Drama

## Identity

A Rather English Marriage

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/a-rather-english-marriage
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** a-rather-english-marriage
- **IMDb ID:** tt0164841
- **TMDB ID:** 47332
- **Wikidata ID:** Q56356559
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164841/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/47332, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56356559

**Fi1m score: 75** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* A squadron leader and a milkman lose their wives the same night and then have to work out who makes the tea

> A small, made-for-television film about two widowers and a large house, carried almost entirely by Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. It looks like 1998 television and sounds like Andrew Davies, and both men are so good that neither matters much.

## Synopsis

In an English hospital, two men lose their wives on the same night. Reggie Conyngham-Jervis (Albert Finney), a retired RAF squadron leader with a large house, a loud voice and no idea how to boil an egg, sits a few chairs along from Roy Southgate (Tom Courtenay), a retired milkman who apologises for being in the way. Reggie’s wife Mary (Ursula Howells) and Roy’s wife Grace are gone by morning. Neither man can manage alone, so Roy moves into Reggie’s house to keep it, and him, running. Into this arrangement walks Liz Franks (Joanna Lumley), who runs a dress shop and has taken a shine to Reggie, or to his house. Flashbacks show the young Reggie (John Light) as the hero he thinks he is.

## Review

Andrew Davies adapts Angela Lambert’s novel into something that could be described, unkindly, as an odd-couple comedy for the over-seventies. Two wives die on the same night in the same hospital. One husband is Reggie Conyngham-Jervis (Albert Finney), a retired RAF squadron leader who has never made his own breakfast and does not intend to start. The other is Roy Southgate (Tom Courtenay), a retired milkman who has done nothing else. Roy moves into Reggie’s house, and the film watches what two men who would never otherwise have spoken do with each other’s company. It is modest, it is funny, and it is better than it needs to be.

Finney plays Reggie as a man who has been performing the squadron leader for fifty years and has forgotten there was ever anyone else underneath. He shouts for things. He drinks before lunch. He tells the war story again. Finney gives all of it enormous relish and then, in the quiet moments, lets us see a frightened old man who cannot find the kettle. It is a big performance, but it is big because Reggie is, and Finney knows exactly when to take the volume down.

Courtenay has the harder job and does it better. Roy is a man who has spent his life being polite to people who did not notice him, and Courtenay plays that without once asking for sympathy. He stands in doorways. He says thank you to people who have done him no favours. In the hospital scenes early on, while Finney makes a noise, Courtenay simply sits, and it moved us more than we expected; we found ourselves close to tears without quite knowing when it had happened. The two of them share a long history of working together, and it shows in how little either needs to do to get a reaction from the other.

Joanna Lumley’s Liz Franks, the dress-shop owner who sets her sights on Reggie, is the third leg of the thing, and Lumley is wise enough to play her as a person rather than a gold-digger. Liz wants a comfortable old age and sees one going begging. Lumley gives her a brisk, well-dressed loneliness that makes her easy to like and hard to trust, and the scenes where she and Roy size each other up across Reggie’s kitchen are the sharpest in the film.

It was made for television and it looks it. Gavin Finney’s photography is flat and brownish in the house interiors, and the exteriors have the slightly muddy colour of British television of the period. Michael Pickwoad’s design of Reggie’s house is the exception: large, cold, full of things nobody has dusted, and plainly too big for one man and an unused drinks tray. Frances Tempest puts Reggie in blazers that have seen better decades and Roy in the same cardigan for most of the running time, which is right. Jim Parker’s score is light and stays out of the way. Dave King cuts the flashbacks to the war, with John Light as the young Reggie, in cleanly enough, though the film does not need as many of them as it has.

The flaws are the ordinary ones of a television drama with 104 minutes to fill. The middle stretch repeats itself, with one more drunken dinner and one more quiet morning after than the story requires. Davies’s script is sharp line by line and a little schematic scene by scene; you can see the class lesson being set out well before it is taught. The ending is tidier than the men deserve.

The pleasure is simpler than any of that. Two of the best actors this country produced in the last century sit in a kitchen and talk about their dead wives, and the film has the sense to let them. Watch it at home, where it was meant to be seen, and do not expect it to look like anything. Expect it to be acted as well as anything you will see this week.

*Fi1m score 75, published 7 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is A Rather English Marriage worth watching?**

*A Rather English Marriage* is worth watching for anyone who wants to see Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay acting at full strength in a small room, and we scored it 75. It was made for television, looks it, and repeats itself in the middle, but the two leads are good enough that neither matters much. Expect a quiet, funny, well-acted drama rather than anything handsome.

**How long is A Rather English Marriage, and what is it rated?**

*A Rather English Marriage* runs 1h 44m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch A Rather English Marriage in the Netherlands?**

*A Rather English Marriage* is not on any streaming or rental service in the Netherlands at the moment. Availability is checked daily.

**How does A Rather English Marriage compare to The Dresser?**

*A Rather English Marriage* and [*The Dresser*](https://film.one/film/the-dresser) are both two-handers for Finney and Courtenay, and the earlier film is the stronger of the two. *The Dresser* comes from a stage play and lets the pair play a ruined actor-manager and his dresser at full pitch, while the later film puts them in a kitchen as widowers and is gentler, flatter and more schematic. Start with *The Dresser* if you want the sharper piece; come to this one for the warmth.

**Is A Rather English Marriage based on a true story or a book?**

*A Rather English Marriage* is based on a novel by Angela Lambert, adapted for television by Andrew Davies, and is not a true story. The script is sharp line by line but a little tidy in how it sets out its class lesson, which may come from the novel or the adaptation; our review does not say. You do not need to have read the book to follow or enjoy it.

**What should I watch after A Rather English Marriage?**

After *A Rather English Marriage*, try [*The Dresser*](https://film.one/film/the-dresser) (1983, Fi1m 80): Finney and Courtenay fifteen years earlier, in a dressing room instead of a kitchen. Then [*Umberto D.*](https://film.one/film/umberto-d) (1952, Fi1m 91): A retired Roman clerk, his dog and the question of how to go on alone; and [*Tokyo Story*](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story) (1953, Fi1m 92): Ozu’s old couple visit their children and learn how little room they take up.

### Reviews we read (2)

- **Variety**, Derek Elley (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the comedy entertaining and ultimately moving, with a warm, engaging central relationship. He especially praises the natural chemistry between Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, while noting the film’s small-screen feel and muddy color. [Read](https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/a-rather-english-marriage-1200455871/)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies this as a television review, but the page content is inaccessible. Its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/02/arts/television-review-their-wives-are-dead-so-what-else-is-there-to-do.html)

## Details

- **Director:** Paul Seed
- **Director:** Paul Seed
- **Teleplay:** Andrew Davies
- **Novel:** Angela Lambert
- **Cinematography:** Gavin Finney
- **Editor:** Dave King
- **Music:** Jim Parker
- **Production design:** Michael Pickwoad
- **Costume design:** Frances Tempest
- **Producer:** Jo Willett
- **Cast:** Albert Finney as Reggie Conyngham-Jervis; Tom Courtenay as Roy Southgate; Joanna Lumley as Liz Franks; John Light as Young Reggie; Joanna Scanlan as Sister; Lucy Robinson as Susan; Ursula Howells as Mary; Priyanga Burford as Dr. Swann
- **Runtime:** 1h 44m
- **First release (the UK):** 30 December 1998
- **Genres:** Drama

## Where to watch in the Netherlands

Not streaming, renting or buying in the Netherlands at the last check.

## If you liked this

- *The Dresser* (1983), Fi1m 80: Finney and Courtenay fifteen years earlier, in a dressing room instead of a kitchen. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-dresser.md)
- *Last Orders* (2001): Courtenay again, with Caine and Hoskins, taking a dead friend’s ashes to the sea.
- *Umberto D.* (1952), Fi1m 91: A retired Roman clerk, his dog and the question of how to go on alone. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/umberto-d.md)
- *Harry and Tonto* (1974): Art Carney’s widower crosses America with a cat and more dignity than his children.
- *Tokyo Story* (1953), Fi1m 92: Ozu’s old couple visit their children and learn how little room they take up. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/a-rather-english-marriage