User Reviews

The historical Society welcomes speaker Cedric Wellbeloved, who's all set to give a talk on ancient Greece. Cedric arrives with his younger wife Norma, who spots a face from her past, an unrequited love.

What a sad story, one of people who have clearly made so, and settled for less, poor Norma, she's obviously settled with a man she didn't love, simply for a bit of security, how times have changed.

Slightly less humour here than in previous stories, this one's more a sour tinged love story, some really fine performances throughout, Pat Heywood and Richard Vernon are a joy, as are Edward Judd and Barbara Laurenson, I really did adore cat owning Mrs Digby, gloriously played by Margery Mason.

I couldn't help being reminded of Carry on Behind, that hilarious moment where Professor Crump (Kenneth Williams) gets up to address his students, and all manner of shenanigans begin, poor Cedric.

Captivating.

9/10.

Norma (Pat Heywood) and husband Cedric (Richard Vernon) are invited by the Historical Society to give a lecture, accompanied by photo slides, about their travels in the Greek Islands. Society leading light Edna (Barbara Laurenson) has roped in her handyman partner Jack (Edward Judd) who has reluctantly agreed to set up the projector and generally help out.

Norma is an attractive forty something while Cedric is clumsy, doddery, and forgetful, a convincing performance by Vernon who was only 49 at the time. Twenty one years previously Norma and Jack were very briefly engaged but she broke it off merely because he had dirty fingernails. He has since become an accomplished artist, is still fit and a ladies man, even flirting with the dowdy Mrs Digby. This is Norma and Jack's first meeting since they were engaged, Jack is pleased to see her again, while Norma is tearful and completely besotted. But it's far too late, he's fairly happily shacked up but she's stuck with a decent but dull old boy who could almost be taken for her father.

There's a touch of Brief Encounter about it, indeed Norma's situation is even more tragic than Celia Johnson's Laura. Laura had an affair but made the right moral choice by returning to her husband. Norma made the wrong choice when she still had the freedom to make the right one.