Watching Withnail At Uncle Monty's (Slight Return)

I've just got back from Sleddale Hall, aka Crow Crag, where a fine time was had by all last night watching a certain film.

It absolutely pissed it down yesterday morning, it's absolutely pissing it down as I type this, and the previous three nights of Withnailfest this year were all very damp but last night, and this morning, we had glorious weather, with only the merest hint of a shower.

Hats off once again to the fabulous team at Picnic Cinema, who outdid themselves for this extra-special 30th anniversary year, and of course to Uncle Tim, the owner of Sleddale Hall, for letting us all sit in his courtyard and shout rude words until gone midnight.

I didn't take any photos this year (if you're interested, have a look at my exhaustive, and exhausting, photo-feature from 2014) but here's one of me with Uncle Monty. I look pretty happy, as indeed I was, thanks to the lack of rain, and a few ales.

Balls to Monty.

Happy 30th Birthday, Withnail and I

Ralph Steadman's illustration for the original theatrical poster.

It was 30 years ago today that Withnail and I was first screened. Back on April 10th 1987 the response was, frankly, not particularly overwhelming... the film took years to build into the terrible cult that it is today. It had built up a head of steam by its 10th anniversary, when it had one of its many re-releases...

The 10th anniversary theatrical re-release poster. Sorry Ralph, they went for a photo. Sponsored by Oddbins!

... and while back then, the film was being aimed squarely at the Loaded generation, twenty years on, it can still be convincingly argued that it is a 'film for today', as this thoughtful piece at The New Statesman shows.

There's another 30th anniversary piece at The Daily Beast, here, a listicle at the Torygraph here, and truly excellent, in-depth then-and-now look at the film's locations from Adam Scovell at the BFI, here. (Update: they were a few days late to the party, but the BBC weighed in with a lovely piece, including a new interview with Richard E Grant, which you can read here.)

As a final piece of birthday reading, here's Ralph (Danny the Dealer) Brown's blog post about seeing the film for the first time. (Brown's blog, taking songs as a way into stories from his life, is well worth a read, by the way.)

Happy birthday, Withnail. Chin chin!

Withnail at Uncle Monty's: tickets on sale date revealed!

The Picnic Cinema 30th anniversary screenings of Withnail & I at Sleddale Hall in Cumbria (aka Crow Crag, aka Uncle Monty's cottage in the country) on the 21st and 22nd of July 2017 are sure to sell out very, very quickly. Now, thanks to an advance email to subscribers of the Picnic Cinema publicity list, we now know exactly when these gold-dust tickets will actually go on sale:

FRIDAY 24TH FEBRUARY at 10am SHARP!

The link you'll need to bookmark is

RIGHT HERE

Good luck in nabbing one, Withnailers! With only about 100 tickets available for each night, you'll need to be fast.

Watch Withnail at Uncle Monty's on the 30th Anniversary!

The now-annual 'Withnailer Weekend' at Sleddale Hall, aka Crow Crag, aka Uncle Monty's cottage in the country, is already a legendary event.

It's a chance to watch the film at the very location it was shot: if you want to know more, just click the link above that says 'Watching Withnail at Uncle Monty's' to read/look at a frankly overlong photo-essay I did a few years back.

The event always sells out, but this year the tickets are bound to go super-fast, as 2017 is of course the 30th anniversary of the film's original release.

Picnic Cinema, who organise the whole shindig, have just this minute announced this year's dates:

FRIDAY 21st July 2017
SATURDAY 22nd July 2017

The tickets are not yet on sale, but to be notified as soon as they are, click on

THIS LINK RIGHT HERE

and click subscribe!

It Was 30 Years Ago Today... Withnail's Anniversary!

Exactly 30 years ago today, on August 3rd, 1986, a first time director, his crew and a few actors (not from London: one was and is a scouser, and the other grew up in Swaziland) gathered at Sleddale Hall near Shap in Cumbria, and rolled cameras for the first day's shooting of a little film called Withnail and I. The rest is history...

The Cumberland News, one of the local papers here in Penrith (Penrith!!) has done a great commemorative article, which you can read below...

Having been alerted to the anniversary, I checked in with REG himself to see if he had any plans. While he didn't reply as such (not as of this writing, at least) he did like my tweet, which in these parts is the equivalent of a benediction from the pope...