Billy Liar

- 1963
- UK
- 1h 38min
- 12
- Directed by: John Schlesinger
- Written by: Keith Waterhouse (novel and play), Willis Hall (play)
- Cast: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles, Mona Washbourne
Vintage northern kitchen sink drama based on Keith Waterhouse's popular book. An undertaker's clerk slips in and out of a Walter Mitty-style fantasy world to escape the drudgery of life in a northern town. The spirit of the swinging 60s is captured in Christie, while Courtenay brings a warmth and sensitivity to the tale.
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Billy Liar


John Schlesinger’s classic British New Wave comedy has a warm and light touch
Not many classic films have also enjoyed success as a book, play, sitcom and musical. It’s testament to the timelessness of Keith Waterhouse’s source novel, about a 19-year-old lad who ‘can’t say two words to anybody without telling a lie’, that the…
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