Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here is a 1987 British comedy-drama film written and directed by David Leland and starring Emily Lloyd, Tom Bell, Geoffrey Hutchings, and Jesse Birdsall. The film follows a girl's coming-of-age in a small coastal town in postwar England. It is loosely based on the formative years of British madam Cynthia Payne. The original music score was composed by Stanley Myers. The film received acclaim from critics, winning the International Federation of Film Critics prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, a BAFTA award for Best Screenplay for director Leland, and the Best Actress Award for Lloyd from the National Society of Film Critics. Plot In the early 1950s, sixteen-year-old Lynda Mansell lives in a small English seaside town with her widowed father Hubert and younger sister, Margaret. Feisty, outspoken, and precocious, Lynda likes to shock other people with her histrionic behaviour (such as bicycling at the boardwalk with her skirt hiked up, inviting young men to compare her legs to Betty Grable's) and vulgar speech (her favourite insult is "Up yer bum"). Lynda works at a variety of places, including a bus garage and a fish and chip shop, but her rebellious nature often ends up with her losing the job. Hubert, whom Lynda has an adversarial relationship with, unsuccessfully tries to correct Lynda's behaviour by taking her to a psychiatrist. Flashbacks reveal Lynda was close with her late mother. Lynda returns the affections of a couple of male suitors, but the dates she goes on with them are unsatisfying. Eric, a bookie and one of Hubert's middle-aged friends, takes an interest in Lynda. Lynda initially refuses Eric's advances, but as her relationship with her father grows increasingly strained, Lynda begins sleeping with Eric. When Hubert finds out who she is with, he tells Lynda how ashamed he is of her, and how her mother would be as well if she were alive.