An incredibly written film that's infinitely quotable.
"Balls. We want the finest wines available to humanity. We want them here, and we want them now!"
"Here Hare Here"
"I feel like a pig shat in my head."
"I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight."
While most would focus on Withnail and Danny's more on-the-nose moments, it's really Uncle Monty who steals every scene he features in.
In my opinion he is simply one of the most beautifully realised characters in all of comedy, his pompous and lugubrious Oxbridge eccentricities representing the last vestiges of a more genteel era that Withnail had just missed out on being a beneficiary of (Free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't).
I can't dispute that, in his impeccable introduction his most quotable moments (and delivery) arise, with the vainglorious delivery of his Hamlet monologue one of the most succinct and hilarious summations of a character in Cinema:
'It is the most shattering experience of a young man's life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself, "I will never play the Dane."'
Ditto the magnificent upper-class eccentricity of his agrarian/sexual aspirations:
"I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium. The carrot has mystery. Flowers are essentially tarts. Prostitutes for the bees. There is a certain je ne sais quoi - oh, so very special - about a firm, young carrot...Excuse me..."
However it is in his more maudlin moments where his dialogue - and the writing - truly shines, mourning the fin de siècle in his own way, with macabre little monologues hinting at his deep reserves of loss and despair.
'Oh my boys, my boys, we are at the end of an age! We live in a land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in, shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour, and here we are, we three; perhaps the last island of beauty... in the world'
My favourite however, has to be the little appendix to his anecdotes of Oxford and his 'sensitive crimes' in a punt with his poetry-reciting lover:
"I sometimes wonder where Norman is now. Probably wintering with his mother in Guildford. A cat, rain, Vim under the sink, and both bars on. But old now, old. There can be no true beauty without decay."
Sheer brilliance, with its fingerprints all over British Comedy almost 40 years on - with particular reference to the likes of Armando Ianucci, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, David Mitchell/Robert Webb, and Richard Ayoade, covering movies like 'Submarine' and TV like 'Peep Show' and 'Spaced' most notably.
The film is set (but not actually entirely filmed) in my home town of Camden. It still is a bit like that here - there's a guy I see occasionally walking around in a suit with a cat lying across his shoulders. Walking past, for example, the Dublin Castle which does feel like the type of place where someone might call you a 'perfumed ponce'. Also the final scene where they sit on a bench in the Regents Park is just by the old -lion- (edit wolf!) enclosure.
"Throw yourself into the road, darling, you haven't got a chance!"
The drunk roaring about 'perfumed ponces' is none other than Daragh O'Malley, the fantastic second-fiddle to Sean Bean in the 'Sharpe' TV series, and voices the lawyer in Grim Fandango amongst other roles!
The family overall are well worth reading up on - his father was the Minister for Education who introduced free secondary education to Ireland, and his Mother was a muse of Patrick Kavanaghs and the subject of the famous ballad "On Raglan Road". His father Donogh, was even originally engaged to Richard Harris's sister, Audrey (who died during their engagement of leuekemia aged 21).
I think it was the wolf enclosure, along the north south path in the NE part of Regent's Park.
The Zoo has been rejigged since then, I attended the Danish Summer Fair just nearby every year, and used to pop out to say Hi to the wolves ('Hi hi ulve!') but they're now deeper in the zoo.
The Tigers are along by the Gibbons and the camels, on the boundary of the East - West path. Occasionally walking across Regent's Park you'll hear a loud roar.
I guess the US Ambassador who's residence is next door hears that a fair bit.
Back on topic.
Uncle Monty with his potted vegetables was bonkers.
'Flowers are tarts!'
I have the Criterion Bluray from a few years back (which I guess without bothering to look is HD) and I thought it made it feel more like a TV movie. This may be a film that works better in standard def. Or it could just be what I'm used to.
I love this movie. After I'd moved to the UK it was one of the first movies I watched with friends who are a gay couple and often reference how they are literally Withnail and Marwood.
Fun(?) fact - An actor that was supposed to play Marwood dropped out because they thought the film was homophobic.
Robinson originally wanted Paul McGann, but he insisted on using his own accent, resulting in Robinson firing him and getting somebody else in. Then the somebody else dropped out, and McGann came back with a new Home Counties accent.
Source: Some interview with Paul McGann I watched. No idea who the other actor was.
Huh that's really interesting! As one of them gays myself, I can see what they mean. The scenes with Monty being a gay "sex pest" are a hurtful stereotype, but given the time it was made in there was much worse depictions of gays in media at the time.
To this day people seem to believe all gays are they feminine heeyyyyy type sex pests, whereas in reality the majority of us just regular dudes - hell I find most straight guys unattractive (not in looks, but definitely in behaviour).
If you liked Withnail & I, try "Naked" for the hard-edge & existential experience... you'll never forget "Naked" - it stays with you, for better or worse.
I still think about some scenes in Naked having only seen it once. It's brutal and uncomfortable at many points, and a brilliant film.
I was visiting Dalston, London and thought I recognised a certain house and sure enough it was the (at least exterior) filming location for "the" house in the film. It was characteristic enough to recognise even after one viewing.
I have a friend who is just like Vivian. I'm sure that in an alternative universe their wasted talents of observational wit and caustic retorts would have made them a world class comic playwright.
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"Balls. We want the finest wines available to humanity. We want them here, and we want them now!"
"Here Hare Here"
"I feel like a pig shat in my head."
"I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight."
In my opinion he is simply one of the most beautifully realised characters in all of comedy, his pompous and lugubrious Oxbridge eccentricities representing the last vestiges of a more genteel era that Withnail had just missed out on being a beneficiary of (Free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't).
I can't dispute that, in his impeccable introduction his most quotable moments (and delivery) arise, with the vainglorious delivery of his Hamlet monologue one of the most succinct and hilarious summations of a character in Cinema:
'It is the most shattering experience of a young man's life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself, "I will never play the Dane."'
Ditto the magnificent upper-class eccentricity of his agrarian/sexual aspirations:
"I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium. The carrot has mystery. Flowers are essentially tarts. Prostitutes for the bees. There is a certain je ne sais quoi - oh, so very special - about a firm, young carrot...Excuse me..."
However it is in his more maudlin moments where his dialogue - and the writing - truly shines, mourning the fin de siècle in his own way, with macabre little monologues hinting at his deep reserves of loss and despair.
'Oh my boys, my boys, we are at the end of an age! We live in a land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in, shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour, and here we are, we three; perhaps the last island of beauty... in the world'
My favourite however, has to be the little appendix to his anecdotes of Oxford and his 'sensitive crimes' in a punt with his poetry-reciting lover:
"I sometimes wonder where Norman is now. Probably wintering with his mother in Guildford. A cat, rain, Vim under the sink, and both bars on. But old now, old. There can be no true beauty without decay."
Sheer brilliance, with its fingerprints all over British Comedy almost 40 years on - with particular reference to the likes of Armando Ianucci, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, David Mitchell/Robert Webb, and Richard Ayoade, covering movies like 'Submarine' and TV like 'Peep Show' and 'Spaced' most notably.
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"Throw yourself into the road, darling, you haven't got a chance!"
The family overall are well worth reading up on - his father was the Minister for Education who introduced free secondary education to Ireland, and his Mother was a muse of Patrick Kavanaghs and the subject of the famous ballad "On Raglan Road". His father Donogh, was even originally engaged to Richard Harris's sister, Audrey (who died during their engagement of leuekemia aged 21).
The Zoo has been rejigged since then, I attended the Danish Summer Fair just nearby every year, and used to pop out to say Hi to the wolves ('Hi hi ulve!') but they're now deeper in the zoo.
The Tigers are along by the Gibbons and the camels, on the boundary of the East - West path. Occasionally walking across Regent's Park you'll hear a loud roar.
I guess the US Ambassador who's residence is next door hears that a fair bit.
Back on topic.
Uncle Monty with his potted vegetables was bonkers. 'Flowers are tarts!'
Monty was great - "Are you a sponge or a stone? Do you soak up new experiences?"
I'm not from the UK and have been dying to know if there's more cultural nuance to that slang than name dropping a neighborhood.
> I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Town
Just a week ago, Criterion re-released Withnail & I in 4K: https://awardswatch.com/criterion-collection-may-2025-brings...
Although, if you look at this brief and rare Viv MacKerrell snippet[0], his performance is a lot more Danny than Withnail.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5vCZTkY7g&t=1283s
It's a funny scene.
Robinson originally wanted Paul McGann, but he insisted on using his own accent, resulting in Robinson firing him and getting somebody else in. Then the somebody else dropped out, and McGann came back with a new Home Counties accent.
Source: Some interview with Paul McGann I watched. No idea who the other actor was.
To this day people seem to believe all gays are they feminine heeyyyyy type sex pests, whereas in reality the majority of us just regular dudes - hell I find most straight guys unattractive (not in looks, but definitely in behaviour).
I was visiting Dalston, London and thought I recognised a certain house and sure enough it was the (at least exterior) filming location for "the" house in the film. It was characteristic enough to recognise even after one viewing.
I have a friend who is just like Vivian. I'm sure that in an alternative universe their wasted talents of observational wit and caustic retorts would have made them a world class comic playwright.
"Here hair here". What a great film, also.
Here hare here. (The hunter, leaving them a rabbit.)
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