A Private Function (1984)

The forthcoming wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip is a cause for celebration in post war Britain, but it isn’t going to affect rationing that still only allows one person one rasher of bacon per week. The folks of a small Yorkshire town have their own cunning plan. Secreted in the middle of the woods, they have a pig. Despite the best efforts of the ferret-like detective “Wormold” (Bill Paterson), they are fattening it up with whatever they can find - including some ingredients that we’d sooner not have known about, ready for the big day. Unbeknownst to them, though, local chiropodist “Chilvers” (Michael Palin) gets wind of this and decides that seeing as most of the town’s grandees don’t like him very much, he is going to appropriate said beast for his wife (Maggie Smith) and her mother (Liz Smith). As you might expect from any partnership between Smith and Palin, one is a stronger, non-nonsense personality and the other maybe just a bit timid, so what chance the latter would ever know what to do with a live pig roaming around - however hungry they might be? Writer Alan Bennett would have lived through this national event and so we can assume some youthfully inspired and informed commentary as this story plays out and he peppers it with his usual brand of Northern (English) wit. Richard Griffiths and Denholm Elliott both add characterful richness to the proceedings as the daft plot successfully and entertainingly exaggerates the snobbishness of a community where nobody really has very much, but where status is still king and two turkeys isn’t going to feed the whole village!