Billy Liar
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Billy Liar (1959) is a novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, film, musical and TV series.
The semi-comical story is about Billy Fisher, a working-class 19-year-old living with his parents in the fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire. Bored by his job as a lowly clerk for an undertaker, Billy spends his time indulging in Walter Mitty-like fantasies and dreams of life in the big city as a comedy writer. However, with three girlfriends on the go, his tendency to overimagination comes at a cost.
Characters
William "Billy" Fisher - Billy is 19, and living with parents Alice and Geoffrey, and his grandmother, Florence Boothroyd. Billy lies compulsively to everyone he comes across, whether it's the claim that his father lost the chance to become "world champion" after a leg-amputation or telling his parents that his friend's mother is pregnant. Billy works as a clerk for undertakers Shadrack & Duxbury. He is engaged to three girlfriends in the play, and is always talking about a job offer writing scripts in London for "Danny Boon", a comedian.Alice Fisher - Billy's mother. She rarely sits down in the play, constantly working hard to keep the house tidy and look after her husband, her mother and Billy.
Geoffrey Fisher - Billy's father. Geoffrey uses the word "bloody" in his sentences so often it has lost all meaning. Geoffrey has been a successful removals businessman so his family live middle class lives despite his working class background. Geoffrey has a short temper, but otherwise rarely shows emotion.
Florence Boothroyd - Billy's grandmother. Florence talks to the sideboard more than her own family, and is always drinking out of a pint-pot. Florence falls ill in Act 2 and is taken upstairs. By Act 3 she has died.
Arthur Crabtree - Billy's friend. Arthur works at Shadrack & Duxbury's with Billy. When we first see Arthur and Billy together in Act 1, they adopt thick northern accents and engage in buffoonery, imitating their elders. Despite this tomfoolery, Arthur's mood towards Billy changes in Act 3. He does not appear in Act 2.
Barbara - One of Billy's fiancees. Barbara is prudish, always eating oranges and harbours dreams of living with Billy in a cottage in Devon, with "little Billy and little Barbara".
Rita - Rita is 17, is short, but comes across as a "hard lass". She is engaged to Billy, and has a habit of mimicking Billy every time he offers an excuse for her missing engagement ring. Unbeknown to her, it is on Barbara's finger. She appears in Acts 2 and 3.
Liz - A scruffy girl in need of a new skirt, she is nevertheless the one who truly understands Billy, and the only one he really has a genuine interest in. Before her appearance, Billy pretends he doesn't have much interest in her, but it is clear when she appears that he is still smitten with her.
Play
The play is set in one Saturday: Act 1 in the morning, Act 2 in the early evening and Act 3 at night.
Film
The style of the film is archetypal British New Wave (and "kitchen sink"), being inspired by the earlier French New Wave. Characteristic of the style is a documentary/cinéma vérité feel and the use of real locations (in this case the city of Bradford in Yorkshire).
One sequence had a very early use of a swear word, at least by commercial film standards. Mona Washbourne is heard to say the word 'pissed'.
The Cinemascope photography was by Denys Coop, and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score.
In 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the 12th greatest British film of all time.
TV series & musical
The novel was also used as the basis for a television sitcom series of the 1970s starring Jeff Rawle. It has never been rerun, although the first series is due to be released on DVD in August 2006. An American adaptation entitled Billy and starring Steve Guttenberg aired briefly in 1979. A successful West End musical (entitled simply Billy) starred Michael Crawford and, in her West End debut, Elaine Paige. The book was by well-known British sitcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, where music and lyrics were by film composer John Barry and Don Black respectively.Other incarnations
Waterhouse later wrote a sequel called Billy Liar on the Moon."Billy Liar" is also the title of the second track off of Her Majesty The Decemberists by The Decemberists and the first track of a CD single of the same name.
Morrissey was heavily influenced by the novel, "borrowing" many lines from it, in particular for The Smiths song "William, It Was Really Nothing".
"Billy Liar" is also the name of a character that appears on Nottingham Hospitals' Radio's Something for the Weekend show. This Billy is a bit of a namedropper and alleges to know a number of celebrities - mostly Z-list and has a brother called Liam and another relative called Ernest.
External links
- [Billy!] the Musical (Broadway.com article)
- [Billy Liar locations] (ReelStreet.com's guide to the Bradford film locations)
- [Bruce Goldstein essay on the film at criterionco.com]
- [A.O. Scott essay on the film at criterionco.com]
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