STARTER FOR TEN
UK, 2006, 97 minutes, Colour.
James Mc Evoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Katherine Tate, Dominic Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, James Corden, Mark Gatiss, Guy Henry, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan.
Directed by Tom Vaughan.
This is a very entertaining film with quite a few laughs. Audiences all around the world should find many things in it to like. However, it is a special treat for British audiences, especially those who watch BBC television, BBC 2.
There is the inevitable question, what does the title mean? Is it about horseracing, for instance? Is it about betting on races? Is it a film about drinking and an aperitif before getting on to the heavy stuff? No, none of the above. The title comes from the long-running program, University Challenge. For those not in the know, this is one of Britain’s prestige quiz programs (with spin-offs in other countries including India). Two teams of four from two universities compete each week to move to the next round on their way to the final play-off.
The method, by the way, is to begin with a question for individuals to answer without conferring (the fastest finger on the buzzer answers first). The team with the person who answers correctly then have three bonus questions where they can confer to give the answer. Each of these bonuses is worth five points but to begin with it’s a starter for ten!
Which is background to a nice British comedy about a polite young man who loved to watch quizzes with his parents and is pretty good at knowing answers getting into Bristol University. When he sees the notice for University Challenge, he turns up for the audition. Needless to say, there is some eccentricity in the membership of the team, especially the bombastic captain who has led his team to defeat for three years.
The setting is 1985 (with a soundtrack compilation of songs of the period).
No, it’s not just a film about the quiz. There is much more to it than that, but University Challenge does supply a tone to the style of the film, the practice, the funnier aspects of rehearsals and a climax that no one is expecting.
What is important is what happens to our hero, Brian Jackson, played with just the right blend of diffidence and hope by James Mc Avoy. He was a mischievous quadriplegic in Inside I’m Dancing and won a Best Newcomer award for 2005 for his performance as, Mr Tumnus, the faun, in The Chronicles of Narnia. While Brian is a nice home boy, devoted to his mother (comedian Catherine Tate) and missing his father who has been dead for ten years, he also has some Essex friends – the setting is Southend – who don’t really empathise at all with his more academic and literary interests. (They are played by Dominic Cooper and James Corden who featured prominently as more upper crust students in The History Boys.)
Off he goes to Bristol, rooming with two odd students, encountering the Jewish Rebecca who is a compulsive protestor and then falling for Alice who gets a place on the University Challenge team only because she cheated with Brian’s help. The other member of the team is an eager questions answerer, Lucy Chang (Elaine Tan). For those who have watched the program for decades in its pre-Jeremy Paxman days, Mark Gattis of the League of Gentleman, does a wonderful impersonation of compere from 1962, Bamber Gascoigne.
Brian has never really been exposed to falling in love and relationships and there is a blend of humour and poignancy in his literally fumbling attempts with Alice (and a disastrous visit to her parents, Charles Dance and Lindsay Duncan). He tries hard to come to terms with his mother having a boyfriend, the Mr Whippy man from down the street. Things also get complicated when one of his friends comes to visit, gets involved in a fist fight and falls for Alice, let alone the dramatics of the quiz.
The screenplay is by David Nicholls adapting his popular novel (which received a boost from the Richard and Judy show). It is an engaging blend of niceness, naivety and the pain of having one’s eyes opened to the realities of life.
1.An affable piece of entertainment? Memoir? For British audiences? World-wide?
2.The title, its use on the University Challenge program, Brian and his memories of childhood? Answering the University Challenge questions? His ambition to be on the program? Achievement – and failure?
3.The Essex settings, the seaside, the piers, homes, shops and clubs? The contrast with Bristol, the university? University digs? The wealthy country homes? Manchester and the BBC studios?
4.The musical score, the range of songs from the 80s?
5.Brian, nice, his age, seeing him as a child? At home with his mother and father, his father and his coat, the photo – the poignancy of his death? Watching quizzes, answering the questions? His friends in Southend, their sharing, discussions, audiotapes, ambitions, lack of ambition? Brian going to the interview, his incessant talking, the panel, their accepting him?
6.Brian and his mother, her being a widow, fussing, giving him extra food, coming home at Christmas, Brian discovering her in the bath with Des, her friendship with Des, the Christmas celebration, her fer that he was going to say he was gay and her laughing, his coming back from the wealthy home, her support, Des and the ice-cream truck, going to Manchester, their support after his gaffe at University Challenge, wanting to get rid of him in a good sense at the end?
7.His arrival in Bristol, his hopes, the digs, the two eccentric men in their dresses, taking him to the Vicars and Tarts party, their getting the money out of him, no change? His meeting with the eccentric man who went to India? His meeting Rebecca, their discussions? His naivety? Taking the University Challenge notice, being late, the reaction of Patrick? The talk about University Challenge, the test, Alice and her being late, his giving her the answers, the result and his not being on the team, his deferring to Alice? The other members of the team – and the young man and the accident and Brian taking his place?
8.Patrick, his pomposity, the video of his losing the challenge, his reaction with the group, in charge, his rehearsals?
9.Brian, his birthday, taking Alice out, the discussions, seeing Rebecca from the window, the bonds with Alice and with Rebecca? In love with Alice, going to the protests? The going home for Christmas, Des and his mother, his friends, their conversation, wondering whether he had changed? Going to Alice’s family, the meal, talk, the pot, his going to kitchen, their being naked, his being ousted? Alice not wanting to wait at the station?
10.Back to Southend, the discussions with his friends, their characters, the tapes, ambitions? Their return to Bristol, reactions? Their preparations for University Challenge?
11.Alice, her character, flirting, wealth, cheating, her wanting to act, going to dinner with Brian, the long stories about her boyfriends, home at Christmas, her not waiting at the station, at the party, cheating with Spencer? Her reaction, Brian’s reaction?
12.New Year, with Rebecca, their sharing, his calling her Alice, her being hurt?
13.The party, Spencer coming to Bristol, the encounter with Alice, Brian’s dismay? The punch-up with Patrick, the mayhem?
14.Going to Manchester, the preparation for the taping, the fight, the blood, Brian and his lying down, Rebecca and her coming, looking after him, his parents? Seeing the question?
15.The set-up, everybody there, the program, Bamber Gascoigne and his style, the team not having success, the disdain from the Oxford group, the gradual success – and the answer to the question before it was asked, the collapse of the program? Brian in disgrace? Going home with his mother and Des?
16.The aftermath, his going home, moping, the discussions with Spencer, Spencer in the suit on the beach, urging him to return? Not answering Rebecca’s phone calls? Eventually going, in the corridor, bypassing Alice, going to Rebecca? The lecturer welcoming him back? The protests, with Rebecca – and hopes for his life?
