“Nuts in May” - from the BBC

I’ve just spent a very happy hour and a bit slumped on a sofa in front of a roaring fire, Em on one side,  a mug of tea on the other – and “Nuts in May” by Mike Leigh on the television. As with all his films, it is a perfect study of the quirks and imperfections of human nature – and the little obsessions that drive us all. If you can laugh at yourself, and you’ve not seen it, try and get hold of a copy. Better still, if you like character-driven cinema, that examines the way we complicate even the simplest things with our hang-ups, routines and prejudices, get hold of a copy of “Mike Leigh: The BBC Collection”, which contains all his surviving films, plays and shorts for the BBC:

If you want to read some reviews of “Nuts in May”, BFI Screenonline has a very good synopsis by Darren Rea. For a transatlantic view, RVA News has a very good review by Scott Burton. There is also an interesting piece by Ray Carney, excerpted from his book The Films of Mike Leigh.