20 Cult British Films You Need To See Before You Die
20. Wish You Were Here (1987)
Lynda is a brattish, foul mouthed delinquent teenage girl living in a British seaside resort in the 1950s. Sexually provocative, she teases the local boys and has affairs with much older men. She has a seriously tacky and seedy sexual relationship with one of her authoritarian father's friends and becomes pregnant. This is a dreadful scandal, but, in her own inimitable way, Lynda brazens it out. Apparently based on the memoirs of notorious British Madam Cynthia Payne, Emily Lloyd is very appealing in the role of Lynda and plays her with the right amount of cheekiness and charm. It is a very funny film as we watch Lynda rebel against the staid 1950s environment her free soul has to contend with whether it is roaming the garden late at night shouting her trademark saying "Up your bum!" to the neighbours or scandalising a psychiatrist with a litany of profane words. Wish You Were Here has immense appeal to a wide range of audiences and if you want something quirky and original it might hit the spot.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
