Withnail And I News Roundup - Back In Cinemas! Plus, Uncle Monty's Rolls and I Feel Like A Pig Shat In My Head

If you're reading this blog, there's a fair chance you've seen Withnail and I. In fact, you've probably seen it more times than you can remember, and tend to quote it on a daily basis. But if you've never seen it on the big screen, and you live anywhere near any of the cinemas showing Arrow Films' spanking new restored print, do make the effort. Withnail is a quotable cult comedy, yes, but you need a big screen to really appreciate that it's also a brilliantly shot, beautiful looking movie. Thanks to Arrow's work scanning the original negative, supervised by the film's original Director of Photography Peter Hannan, it's never looked better. You can see the new print at:

Curzon Victoria
IFI Dublin
Hackney Picturehouse
Olympic, Barnes
FACT Liverpool
Odeon Panton St
Odeon South Woodford
Odeon Bath
Odeon Colchester
Odeon Oxford Magdalene St
Odeon Guildford
Odeon Lincoln
Odeon Southampton
Odeon Kingston
Odeon Norwich
Odeon Manchester
Campus West Welwyn Garden City
Everyman Selfridges

If you can't make it to the cinema, and you haven't already bought one of the (very) limited edition personalised ones, you can pre-order Arrow's super-duper new Withnail Blu-ray set here.

The re-release has garnered a five star Guardian review here ("Every line is a quotable joy... I feel an intense envy for people who are about to see this for the first time." Amen to that!), and a fun look at the film's influence on fashion here. There's even an entertaining article in the Telegraph (and that's not a sentence I often have call to use) here.

This just in... Uncle Monty's Rolls is up for sale! The Steeple Times has the details here. Its original owner, one Nubar Gulbenkian, was quite a character, it would appear. A thrice married, flamboyantly bearded Armenian playboy, he was evidently also a fan of my favourite writer Saki, as he once paraphrased him by nicking his line about cooks, and applying it to his wives: “I’ve had good wives, as wives go, and as wives go, two of them went."

In other news, The Brunswick Yard in Penrith (Penrith!!), where Withnail Books' Little Shop is located, played host this weekend to its first Oktoberfest, joining forces with the funsters at the Moo Bar to present German beer, sausage (and pizza), and music (the amazing Jed on the Rädern der Stahls and a live performance by Beachmaster).

Rather more than just a few ales were consumed, and yes, the next morning I both had a bastard behind the eyes, and felt like a pig shat in my head. Mr Robinson, those descriptions are perfect.

Photos below thanks to the Moo Bar's Facebook page. The really ace ones which look like they were taken by a professional photographer look that way because they were taken by a professional photographer, John Burrows.

An Actual Bottle From Uncle Monty's Sensational Cellar: The Ultimate Withnail Collectible?

Anno's Africa is "is a UK based charity that offers an alternative, arts education to orphans and vulnerable children in some of Africa’s most desperately deprived city slums." You can visit their website and donate to this most worthy cause here. 

I'm mentioning them because last week they auctioned off a bunch of 'celebrity' items on eBay. A whopping £42,000 was raised in total, thanks in no small part to Jane Birkin's signed Hermes bag (£19,900) and BenCum's Spencer Hart suit from Sherlock (£7,100). But the item that caught my eye was this:

"A genuine Haut Brion '53 wine bottle with original label, but filled with 'prop' wine (Ribena or equivalent) as used as a prop in cult movie WITHNAIL AND I – as part of Uncle Monty's wine cellar – and not uncorked by Uncle Monty! 

The label is signed on the left hand side by the movie's writer and director Bruce Robinson, and on the right hand side he has written 'Withnail & I 1986'."

I'll admit I would have dearly loved to have won this (what a centrepiece for the Withnail shrine in the Little Shop!); alas the winning bid of £481.89 was somewhat out of my price range. Still, at that price I'm sure it's gone to a good home, where it will be treated with the respect and love it deserves, and carefully handed down to generation upon generation in the future...

Incidentally, you can buy a bottle of Haut-Brion '53 that still has the actual wine in it for slightly less than £481.89 here, but only if you buy a whole case of it. For five and a half grand.

Anyway, here are some more photos of this wonderful piece of Withnail history, as modelled by Mr Robinson himself... Chin chin!

Withnail and I News Round-Up: An Amazing new Blu-ray, A Return To Cinemas... and Raymond Duck

It's time for a quick-round-up of Withnail-related news this week, mainly to bring attention to Arrow Video's out-of-the-blue announcement of the Withnail and I home video release to end all Withnail and I home video releases.

The film has had many, many releases on home entertainment formats, at least two each on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray already, but Arrow are the first company in the digital era to go back to the original camera negative and rescan the whole thing in 2K HD, so this release will surely look the best since it was in the cinemas. Certainly, the time I was lucky enough to see the film at the BFI, shown from a Blu-ray, with Bruce Robinson himself in the audience, he did comment afterwards that the 'print' looked very dark to him...

The full details of Arrow's limited edition, 4 disc collectors' box set, and how to order it, are to be found on their site HERE, but get a load of this:

4-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:

New 2K restoration of WITHNAIL and I from the original camera negative, supervised and approved by director of photography Peter Hannan

Bruce Robinson’s follow-up feature, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, newly transferred from original film elements and approved by director of photography Peter Hannan

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD Presentation of both films

Original uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio for both films

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

Audio commentary by writer-director Bruce Robinson

Audio commentary by critic and writer Kevin Jackson, author of the BFI Modern Classic on WITHNAIL and I

All four original ‘Withnail Weekend’ documentaries, first screened on Channel 4 in 1999, including The Peculiar Memories of Bruce Robinson, which looks at the director’s career, Withnail & Us, which focuses on the film’s making, and two shorter documentaries, I Demand to Have Some Booze and Withnail on the Pier

Newly filmed interviews with key members of WITHNAIL and I’s behind-the-scenes team (TBC)

Theatrical trailers for both films

Exclusive limited edition hardback book packaging (2,000 copies) containing new writing on the films, reprints of key articles on WITHNAIL and I, deleted scenes and more across 200 pages, illustrated with original production stills

More to be announced!

Available in 4 x 500 Numbered and Personalised copies (choose your favourite of four artworks as well as a name to be featured on the back and one of fifteen favourite quotes for a truly unique and personal edition!)

That's some list. I'm looking forward to hearing the commentary track from Kevin Jackson, who has been known to pop up on the Withnail Books Facebook page... Great also to see How to Get Ahead in Advertising getting its due.

The 'personalised' packaging is of course a gimmick, but a fun one. I've taken the opportunity to personalise mine to belong to one Montague H. Withnail. That £50 price tag is hefty, but not unreasonable I think considering what's included, and, to be fair, the considerable outlay Arrow must have made to simply get the negative scanned, let alone pull together everything else.

Sales of the limited edition have been fairly brisk since it was announced on Monday, so if you want a personalised one, I wouldn't leave it too long. There will be a further 2000 unpersonalised copies, but that's still only 4000 in total, and I'd wager there are plenty more Withnail fans than that who are going to want a copy of this edition under their Christmas tree...

Apparently this new remastered print will be coming back into cinemas in a month or two. How may theatrical re-releases has the film had now? I make it at least three!

What else? Well, since they were last mentioned on this blog, the Withnail Ales from the Cumbrian based Eden Brewery have been joined by some new brews: 'Scrubbers', an American Pale Ale, 'Black Jake', a porter with Seville Orange, and the soon-to-be-released chilli beer monster, 'Terrible C'. Chin chin indeed! I've tasted the first two, and they are first class.

And finally... this has been shared on various Withnail Facebook pages, but I wanted to post it here too. How's this for a brilliant on screen Withnail reference, spotted by keen-eyed fan Adam Peter Harris: in an episode of Endeavour, the young Morse drama on ITV, a brass office building plate was glimpsed...

Yup, that's Uncle Monty's first agent, Raymond Duck: "Four floors up on the Charing Cross Road and never a job at the top of them."

Whoever it was on the Endeavour production team that made that happen, hats off.

Before Uncle Monty: A Glimpse At The History of Sleddale Hall

Seeing as last week's blog about the Picnic Cinema screening of Withnail & I at Uncle Monty's cottage proved rather popular, here are a few more photos which might be of interest.

Back in 2009, when the "horrible little shack" went under the hammer, the Telegraph talked to a former resident, and ran a few of her snaps of Sleddale Hall, aka Crow Crag, back in the 1950s...

Sitting on the step of the door used in the film. Ferrets almost certainly in that shed at the back.

Yes, he is the farmer.

Sleddale Hall, taken from the rear.

The article in the Telegraph ran as follows:

*********

More than two decades before it featured in the film Withnail & I, Sleddale Hall was home to the Harrison family. "My father farmed the valley but when the damn was built to make the reservoir we moved away," says Margaret Kuchczynski (Harrison). That was in 1965 - no one has lived there since.

Sleddale Hall was Margaret's parents first home. There was no electricity, and they got about by horse and cart. "We had two horses, both called Piggy," says Margaret. Groceries were delivered as far as Thorney Bank (Margaret's aunt and uncle's farm), over a mile away. "We collected them by pony and cart or Uncle Henry brought them up by tractor and trailer," says Margaret.

Their mother cooked on a big range, but also used a calor gas cooker and did the washing in a Calor gas fired tub with mechanised paddles to wash the clothes. "I can remember being taken to bed by oil lamp and my parents using candles too," says Margaret.

Over the past few years Margaret and her sister Heather have taken their own children back to Sleddale Hall, to see where their mothers were born. "It should be a family home again," says Margaret. "It would be such a shame if it was turned into a museum, after all it was a farm from 1722 until 1965 (over 240 years), and a film set for only one summer in the 1980s. We wish we could afford to buy it."

**********

The Harrison family, I'm guessing, were the ones who used to keep ferrets in the barn (see last week's blog). No doubt Margaret is happy to know that it is a home once again, albeit one that has several hundred rather drunk guests hanging around outside in the yard for one weekend a year...

For more information on the history of the house, plus lots of photos of the interior (taken back when it was in its semi-derelict state) this site is well worth a visit.

Watching Withnail at Uncle Monty's: A Night at Crow Crag, aka Sleddale Hall

It may only be in its third year, but the Picnic Cinema screening of Withnail & I at Sleddale Hall, the house used as the location for Uncle Monty's cottage, has already become a beloved institution.

There were three nights this year, all quickly sold out, each with 100 lucky fans coming on holiday by mistake for the evening, to watch the film, drink fine wines, and then be forced to camp in the farmer's field next door.

Arrival at Crow Crag. This shot got one of the loudest cheers of the night.

Crow Crag on Saturday evening, from (nearly) the same angle.

We were there for the Saturday, which after a damp Thursday and a full-on Withnail-authentic hurricane on the Friday, was a dry and fine evening, thank god. A wonderful time was had by all, and massive thanks are due to Adrian and the Picnic Cinema team for organising it all so brilliantly, The Foundry in Penrith for a very yummy barbecue, and especially to Sleddale Hall's owner, Tim, for allowing the hordes to descend.

Sleddale Hall has not been lived in properly since the 1960s. When Withnail filmed there, it was semi-derelict, and the production actually had to do it up a bit to make it look as uninhabitable as it did on screen! As well as the exteriors, which are seen from several angles, the interior of the house was used for all the ground floor rooms (only the bedroom scenes were shot elsewhere), so Sleddale Hall really is a 'character' in the film. Tim has been lovingly restoring the house and its outbuildings in the five years he's owned it, and though he's still got a ways to go, the results are already fantastic. It's very much a labour of love, and it was great to meet him and chat about it all on Saturday. More power to your elbow, sir! (I should add that the house is of course private property, so please don't try to visit uninvited!)

Anyway, here's a blow-by-blow 'Photo Essay' (or, some pictures what I took on my phone) of our delightful weekend in the country.

Approaching Wet Sleddale, just off the M6 about 12 miles South of Penrith, where Sleddale Hall is to be found, a couple of miles up a farm track. It's not called Wet Sleddale for nowt. The sky here is not usually this clear, believe me.

Shut that gate!!

Fans drove from all around the country, presumably not immediately after consuming a few ales.

The final approach is on foot. We brought wheelbarrows for all our camping gear. *smugface*

The view from the campsite, of Wet Sleddale reservoir. In the film, Marwood emerges from the house to see another lake entirely: the slightly more photogenic Haweswater. Yes, they cheated.

Sitting down to enjoy my holiday. As you can see, the 'campsite' is actually just a field, kindly provided by the farmer, which is on a rather steep angle. Later, this made sleeping in the tent interesting.

Walking up the hill towards Crow Crag.

No need to check out the fuel and wood situation, or buy eggs and things off the farmer: the food is already sorted.

... as is, more importantly, the booze.

The screen had been set up at the end of the courtyard.

"Those are the kind of windows faces look in at." That's the door used in the film, and the other side of those windows is the room with the range, where the chicken/boots are cooked.

The 'proper' front door is not used in the film, but the other side of those ground floor windows is the parlour where the late luncheon is eaten. Thanks to Sleddale Hall's owner Tim, the door and windows now have new, local sandstone surrounds.

Eden Brewery's Withnail-inspired beers were very much in evidence.

Here's the view behind the screen. A customer in the Little Shop last year, an old fellow who had never heard of the film, but knew the house well because his Uncle used to live there, assured me that ferrets used to be kept in this barn.

As the sky began to bruise, the audience arrived...

The back of the house, where Jake the Poacher is seen walking away, was also visited by most of the filmgoers.

Are you the farmer? Of course he's the fucking farmer.
Jeff Wode was also spotted in attendance.

The pre-film entertainment included the Picnic Cinema crew playing a couple of tunes. Here they are singing Psycho Killer.

There was also a quiz, which rather embarrassingly went down to a tiebreak which the Withnail Books team won. We shared the fine wines prize with the fellow tiebreaker teams, but held on to the other prizes...

By about 10.30pm it was finally dark enough to fire up the projector, starting off with some vintage cinema ads...

... before moving on to the main feature.

"My thumbs have gone weird!"

"Then the fucker will rue the day..."

"Chin chin!"

"I will never. Play. The Dane."

"SCRUBBERS!!!"

The first glimpse of Sleddale Hall.

Emerging the next morning. That cornicing on the wall to the left of the statue is actually plaster of Paris, and was added by the production. It was still there years later.

Walking through the archway to see the (false) view of Haweswater. I nipped through there during the film to have slash, but I don't think anyone noticed. That's the alleged Ferret Shed at the bottom of the yard.

Finding a raw potato. There's a patch of rhubarb there now (see photo below).

"Penrith. Penrith!!!" (It isn't, it's the other side of Bampton, several miles away, on the way to Haweswater.)

The red phone box is still there, a must-visit for every Withnail pilgrim.

"A crack at the Mick! These shall be my pleasure."

"A pair of blues." Though this sequence is set in Penrith, it was actually filmed in the Buckinghamshire village of Stony Stratford (now referred to apparently un-ironically on its own website as 'the jewel of Milton Keynes').

"Alright here?"
I said this earlier to the Picnic Cinema person as we were parking up in the farmyard. How we laughed.

A gratuitous Sleddale Hall shot.

... and another.

The van which will shortly be gottenintothebackof.

"This will tend to make you very high."

"I'll miss you Withnail."

THE END. A wonderful screening, in a none-more-perfect venue.

View from the tent door the next morning. We awoke at midge o'clock. They were *furious*, and ate us campers alive. Not what I'd been given to expect from the H. E. Bates novel I'd read. (This blog post is almost finished, honest.)

Where once Withnail found a potato, there's now rhubarb.

Sorry, that became a bit epic, but it was an occasion worth documenting for future generations I feel. Mind you, it will all be happening again next year, and one hopes for many years to come.

At the root of all this is a film made by Bruce Robinson and a bunch of dedicated people over 25 years ago, which is still loved by fans all over the world today. I don't know how many times I've seen it now, but each time, something different jumps out. This time around it was one of Danny the Dealer's lines. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it's *deep*...

"Why trust one drug and not the other? That's politics innit?"