Behaving Badly

1989

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
6.4| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 20 February 1989 Ended
Producted By: Channel 4 Television
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4. The series was released on DVD in 2005. The plot focuses on Bridget Mayor, a middle-aged housewife and part-time teacher who is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband of twenty years abandons her for a younger woman.

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Reviews

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
vgwelland I don't believe there are so many negative reviews of this brilliant series. There is nothing as comparable in today's TV fare - mostly crime and police series! How refreshing it was to have a series so well scripted, directed and acted about PEOPLE for a change. The USA is lucky in that practically everything seems available on DVD. I wish this series were to be released on Region 2 DVD! How lucky we are though to have 4OD where i was able to see this series again. There is a rich vein of archive material in the vaults of our TV and film studios which should more easily be accessed. In Britain we are not even getting the very best films from the MGM archive on DVD.
peterjb1 Let me first of all say that I typically love British series, and I particularly admire Judi Dench. But this... Everybody was so stereotyped; disgusting, coughing and spitting old grandfather; catty older mother-in-law; neurotic young woman--you name it. I, too, have no idea why the love-interest preacher was black, yet alone why he was American; and Giles' bi-sexuality seemed completely irrelevant to me. I suppose the latter two characters were written and cast that way to provide for the injection of certain token minorities. Francesca Folan, who played daughter Phyllida, seemed to be overacting to the nth degree, and in my opinion the plot had more holes than a colander. I'm not sure, but I don't believe this was ever released in a VHS format and was not released as a DVD until 2005, some sixteen years after the original series aired. This smacks of an attempt to capitalize on Ms Dench's recent increase in popularity. She has performed so well in so many films, I would not waste your time renting this.
jyogis This TV mini-series is as relevant today - perhaps more so - with respect to its refreshing examination on attitudes towards aging. Judi Dench is marvelous as a middle aged divorcée who defies conventional wisdom and the expectations placed upon a woman in such circumstances by her family and contemporary society. Viewers may find some discomfort in the early parts of the series as the Dench character maneuvers to turn these expectations on their head. However, the clever script and top notch performances by a first rate supporting cast, should raise insights into the double standards regarding sexual roles, as well as discriminatory attitudes regarding generational differences. Co-stars include Ronald Pickup, Joely Richardson and Frances Barber.
julian kennedy Behaving Badly: 1/10: I have a very high tolerance for cinematic pain. I'm willing to sit through almost anything. Heck forget Jar Jar Binks that's child's play, forget got some undubbed Japanese ghost story sans subtitles… cakewalk, forget some sixties experimental film feature two characters in a white room for six hours.Behaving badly broke me.I kept watching all the way through and it kept getting worse. I like Judi Dench but she is simply unwatchable in this. She plays a dowdy church mouse whose husband leaves her for a younger woman and she decides to think for herself. The choices that she makes are insane and distinctly unfunny.Ah the pain. Joey Richardson as the younger husband stealing harlot suffers from theater acting disease common in BBC productions but it's the grandmother/mother-in-law (Gwen Watford) that did me in. Gwen plays the most painfully irritating stereo type in television history. (Overbearing Jewish shrew that performs voodoo) Oh and the series features "kids" each more banal than the last. (The girl under going a nervous breakdown may send you to your own she is that contagious) Why the kids are even in this series is beyond me. (A younger demographic perhaps?) They are a Real World episode gone horrible wrong. Why is there a black American preacher/love interest? Why would anyone steal Judi Dench's husband? (He is such a wimpy cad and come with more baggage than the Howell's on Gilligan's Island.) In four episodes there is not one laugh. There is only confusion and pain. It is like a Mike Leigh sitcom.

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