SHE'LL BE WEARING PINK PYJAMAS

UK, 1984, 86 minutes, Colour.
Julie Walters, Anthony Higgins.
Directed by John Goldschmidt.

She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas is a British comedy about a group of women - with a touch of the feminist. It was written by Eva Hardy.

The film shows a group of women taking on a course of mountain climbing, canoeing, swimming etc. during a summer holiday. It is located in beautiful settings in England's lake district. As with this genre, the various women come together, interact, tell the truth, change. While some of the women are stereotypes, there are some excellent performances which bring the women to life. The film is also a star vehicle for Julie Walters, the exuberant star of Educating Rita. Anthony Higgins (The Draughtsman's Contract) appears almost as the token male. There is a lot of entertainment in the film, a bit of provocation, and a sympathetic presentation of women's issues.

1. A popular entertainment? British staple? The focus on women -feminist entertainment?

2. The British location photography, the landscapes, the mountains, the rivers, changes in weather? The hardships of the exercise, the challenge, achievement? People within these landscapes: visuals, angles, motion, dangers? The mood of the musical score?

3. The popular device of having a group of women on an occasion, their interacting? The training course and its bases? The women gathering together, explaining their backgrounds and why they came? The ups and downs of their interactions? The effect on each? The challenge? Women amongst women - and the peripheral presence of men?

4. The action sequences: the blend of the serious and the comic, hardships and dangers, farce? Fear, women supporting each other, coming together, lost? The weather? Coping and winning?

5. The camp and its set-up, Anne and her background, enjoying her work. strong, blending the women together, leading them on the exercises? Her decisions? The crisis at the end? The background of her own life and her explanation of her love for her job, not marrying?

6. The men at the camp, token men, working in the team. helping out? Tom and his presence, joining in at the pub, the evening with Joan, driving the van his participation at the end? (The equivalent of many women in films of the past?)

7. The group coming together, their introducing themselves, giving their reasons, explaining their backgrounds, friendships and clashes, women moving to help each other, some wanting to leave, Doreen and her return, creating a spirit, sharing in the achievement? The changing of the women as persons, as women?

8. Woman talk and behaviour: at the camp, in the dormitories, in the shower? The enjoyment of life together? Left out on the first night to make their way back home? The mountain-climbing, trekking through the mountain, canoeing, the water? Their ambitions, the meaning of their lives? Sexuality and its focus, relationships? Estimation of men? Crass, funny? Prim reactions. exuberant reactions? Judging each other? The emergence of truth about each, the consequences? A specifically feminine truth and perspectives?

9. Fran and her exuberance, leadership, her fears, carrying on, helping, the lonely night and running away, Doreen's return and her remaining, the walk and the blisters, the wet night and the telling of the truth, the swim, her own relationships, celibacy? Her remaining to the end - and the humorous pink pyjama ending?

10. Diana and her daughter, the mother and daughter relationship, the mother paying for the course, her reaction against the humorous and crass talk? The daughter mingling with the other women, her understanding of her husband, her marriage, her mother's expectations, her jumping from the bridge when goaded? Her relationship with her husband, her fears, the help from Fran? The night on the mountain, the swim, her understanding her husband and her desire to return? Her mother acknowledging her daughter as growing up?

11. Joan and her primness, tight manner, wondering about her husband, her sexual needs, her night with Tom, the change, her decision to leave her husband, to finish the course?

12. Lucy and her age, her background in the school, her fears of swimming, her learning to join with the women, the climbing, enjoying the course, being daring at the pub, the night in the rain and her sharing her life, her memories of her one sexual encounter, the boy's engagement, her living as a celibate, her devoting her life to others? A supportive woman? Help when lost?

13. Doreen as big, finding the course hard, wanting to achieve things, her fear in climbing the mountain, her decision to leave, her return, persuading Fran to stay, her achievement?

14. The other women in the course, less well characterised, their participation, the background of their careers. the doctor in the clinic, themes of relationships and marriage?

15. An entertaining story, a portrait of women - with point?