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

19 Apr 2013

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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