The Girl in the Café is a British
television movieA television movie is a feature film that is produced for and originally distributed by a...
drama, produced by independent production company
Tightrope PicturesTightrope Pictures is a British television production company, founded in late 2003 by writer Paul Abbott and producer Hilary Bevan-Jones, who had worked together that year on the successful BBC drama serial State of Play...
for
BBC WalesBBC Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside London,...
, and originally screened on
BBC One
in the UK on Saturday 25 June 2005. It was also shown in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on
cable televisionCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
station
Home Box OfficeHBO is a premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner, offers two 24/7 pay television services to over 38 million U.S...
, on the same day. It tells the story of a civil servant, Lawrence, working for the
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, who falls in love with Gina, a young woman whom he meets by chance in a
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
café.
Overview
Lawrence takes Gina to a
G8The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group...
summit in
ReykjavíkReykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's most northern capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
,
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, where she confronts the
Prime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
over the issue of third world debt and poverty in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, much to Lawrence's embarrassment and the anger of his employers. However, he realises that she is right, and tries to help persuade the Chancellor and others at the summit to do something about the issues concerned.
The Girl in the Café was written by
Richard CurtisRichard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a BAFTA, Primetime Emmy winning and Oscar nominated English screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, The Boat That Rocked and...
and directed by
David YatesDavid Yates is a BAFTA- and Emmy Award-winning English film and television director, best known for his work on the most recent Harry Potter films.-Personal life:...
.
Bill NighyWilliam Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He started working in theatre and television, before his first cinema role in 1981, and is perhaps best known to international film audiences for his roles in Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead, Notes on a Scandal, Underworld, Auf...
played Lawrence, with
Kelly MacdonaldKelly Macdonald is a Scottish Emmy Award- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress.-Early life:Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her mother was a garment industry sales executive. Her parents divorced when she was young. She and her younger brother were raised by her mother on a...
as Gina. Nighy and Macdonald had previously starred together in the 2003 BBC serial
State of Play, which was also directed by David Yates, and produced by Hilary Bevan-Jones, who also produced
The Girl in the Café.
State of Play was written by
Paul AbbottPaul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter. Abbott became one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless, the latter of which...
, whose production company Tightrope made
The Girl in the Café, on which he acted as an
executive producerAn executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the filmmaking or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production. Typically an executive producer handles business and legal issues. See also associate producer, co-producer, line producer...
. The main supporting cast included
Ken StottKenneth Campbell Stott is a Scottish actor, particularly known in the United Kingdom for his many roles in television.-Early life:...
as the Chancellor,
Anton LesserAnton Lesser is a British actor. He attended Moseley Grammar School and the University of Liverpool before going to RADA in 1977 where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year....
as George and
Corin RedgraveCorin William Redgrave is an English actor and political activist.-Family:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the son of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
as the Prime Minister.
The production was conceived to tie-in both with the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
's
Africa Lives season of programming, and with the global
Make Poverty HistoryThe Make Poverty History campaign is a Great Britain and Ireland coalition of charities, religion groups, trade unions, campaigning groups and celebrities who mobilise around the UK's prominence in world politics, as of 2005, to increase awareness and pressure governments into taking actions...
campaign, for which writer Curtis was a prominent campaigner. As such, it was also shown in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
on the same day as its UK and US premieres. Curtis was better-known as a writer of
romantic comedyRomantic comedy is a hybrid genre of fiction, especially motion pictures, in which a story about romance is presented in a comedic style. Works in this genre are generally considered light-hearted, and are sometimes associated with the vaguely derogatory terms "chick lit" or "chick flick", meaning...
films such as
Four Weddings and a FuneralFour Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British romantic comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
,
Notting HillNotting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London, released on 21 May 1999. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis who had previously written Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was produced by Duncan Kenworthy, and directed by Roger Michell...
and
Love ActuallyLove Actually is a British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are linked as their tales progress...
(the latter of which he also directed, and had featured Nighy). Although
The Girl in the Café does contain some of his trademark comedy elements, it is generally more serious in tone and attempts to highlight the issues of poverty and
fair tradeFair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of...
.
Reception
On BBC One, the programme gained an audience of 5.5 million, a 29% share of the total television audience watching over its ninety minute duration, winning its timeslot. The opinions, however, were divided.
Andrew AnthonyAndrew Anthony is a journalist who has written for The Guardian since 1990. He is also the author of On Penalties and The Fall-Out .-Published works:*On Penalties...
, for example, wrote a negative review in
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
:
Sarah Vine in
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
was more positive, feeling that the cast performed well but the message overwhelmed the story:
There were also more positive views. Previewing the programme before transmission, Sarah Crompton was very enthusiastic when writing for
The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 as the Daily Telegraph and Courier...
:
Macdonald and Nighy were both nominated at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards for their performances in the production, while the film and Macdonald received Emmy wins.
External links
- The Girl in the Café at bbc.co.uk
BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...
.
- The Girl in the Café — HBO's full description, interviews with Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He started working in theatre and television, before his first cinema role in 1981, and is perhaps best known to international film audiences for his roles in Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead, Notes on a Scandal, Underworld, Auf...
, Kelly MacdonaldKelly Macdonald is a Scottish Emmy Award- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress.-Early life:Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her mother was a garment industry sales executive. Her parents divorced when she was young. She and her younger brother were raised by her mother on a...
, Richard CurtisRichard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a BAFTA, Primetime Emmy winning and Oscar nominated English screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, The Boat That Rocked and...
and David YatesDavid Yates is a BAFTA- and Emmy Award-winning English film and television director, best known for his work on the most recent Harry Potter films.-Personal life:...
and more on the production.