Wish You Were Here (DVD)

Lynda (Emily Lloyd) is on appearance a normal young woman enjoying life in the early 1950’s. But her exterior is far from what’s she’s like inside (so to speak) since the death of her mother Lynda’s destructive behaviour has got steadily worse; making her a burden on her Father and Aunt. It seems that no matter what she does, she cannot stay out of trouble, worse still its got to that stage in her life when boys and sex are starting to become a popular interest.

First setting about Dave (Jesse Birdsall) Lynda enjoys her first sexual experiences, but Dave was not a man, well not in her eyes. But its through this encounter that she becomes better known to Eric (the late Tom Bell); this much older man and sometimes friend of her father excites her in ways, and repulses her in others. But like other experimenting with sex, likes and dislikes don’t seem to worry Lynda its all about sex; and nothing else matters.

Based on the early life of Cynthia Payne, England’s most notorious prostitute Wish You Were Here is a funny and moving drama, that’s as fresh now as it was 20 years ago.

When I think of Wish You Were Here, the first thing I think of is “UP YOUR BUM” this is the chant heard frequently coming from Lynda’s mouth. The second thought I have is the very rude C word, and the reason I think about this is to my knowledge on hearing this in the movie, it was the first time I had heard the word outside the playground, and to the best of my knowledge at that time it could have been a word specifically created for my region of the world. I remember being sort of unimpressed with Wish You Were Here, while being very funny it also was very serious and in my mind the serious side outweighed the humour. That being said a couple of years later and a little bit more maturity and Wish You Were Here became one of my favourite movies.

The nice thing about the film is the way it mixes the serious stuff with the humour, meaning unlike some movies it doesn’t start all laughs and progress into something a little more morbid. This movie stays pretty consistent with perhaps a little more seriousness to the end of the film. What you can’t help but love is the downright cheek of Lynda. From a semi sexual bit of dialogue with playwright Heathcote Williams as the bizarre Dr, Holroyd; to the full on sexual banter between her and Eric. The nice thing with the later relationship is the fact that you can never really address which one of the two you feel most sorry for. When she realises that Eric is simply a dirty old man, Lynda’s brain as well as her body becomes totally aroused, her seduction of Eric being slightly disturbing but more often than not hilarious. Walking with a limp Eric becomes known as “Mr. Long John Silver” by the obnoxious Lynda, and after a strange encounter in the shed at the bottom of the garden she abuses him calling him a pervert and chanting “hope your finger stinks, Mr. Long john Silver!” but its her singing debut of the UP YOUR BUM song that follows this that provides possibly the most amusement of the movie.

Emily Lloyds portrayal of this almost tourette infected child is possibly the best thing she ever did; it was certainly the pinnacle of her bumpy career. Her performance is so good that you actually believe she is the same person as Lynda, so chance encounters with her on the occasional one of show or movie always strike you as a shock, and interviews with this talented actress more of a shock still. It took a lot of guts for Lloyd to accept this role as the movie stood a very likely chance of being hated by the audiences, meaning her career could end before it started, worse still was a genuine chance that the public would take a dislike to her. Luckily on both counts the movie won big time, with cinema audiences going back time and time again to enjoy her playful and rather crude performance.

At the heart of Wish You Were Here is a very serious story of unrequited love, not that of a sexual nature but that of a father and his daughter. It’s painfully obvious that her sister is the much preferred daughter, and more painfully obvious that the family seem to hold her in some way responsible for the death of her mother. All Lynda wants is to be loved by her father, and watching this very one sided relationship is pretty sad indeed. It’s this striving to get noticed and get attention that pretty much damages Lynda’s life from the offset.

Wish You Were Here is a movie that I fail to tire of, its moving and at times hysterical; but most importantly its apparently a pretty accurate reflection of one woman’s real life, and a great insight to anyone looking at life in the 1950’s.

The DVD has no special features and is released on the Cinema Club label for around £7.99