Harnessing Peacocks (1993)

Hebe brings disgrace on her stuffy middle class family, by falling pregnant out of wedlock, she decides to up and leave her family to bring up her son. She sends him to public school, funding it by cooking for wealthy old ladies and high class exclusive prostitution. Hebe is unsure who the father is, she met him intoxicated during festivities in Italy, and all she can remember is a strong, overpowering smell of coffee.This is a really enjoyable drama, that challenges your preconceived ideas about things. Turning the idea of prostitution on its head, Hebe being the one overwhelmingly in control. You could be forgiven for reading the plot and expecting a deeper, more sordid drama.It's funny, easy viewing, with some rather lovely performances, Serena Scott Thomas is quite enchanting, underplaying her role to perfection. John Mills, Peter Davison, Brenda Bruce all lovely, each adding something completely different. With a cast like this it was never going to fail.Enjoyable, 7/10

A sweetly claustrophobic tale of the tempestuous and almost incestuous whirl that lies beneath the genteel and respectable surface of civilised Society in the South west of England. Harnessing Peacocks is great fun, and is a well acted, well presented, rather saucy drawing room comedy, that also manages to expose the hypocrisy of 'the right sort of people'. Vivacious, and fun, and with just a small dollop of romance.There is some nudity, and a considerable amount of foul language, which give ample justification for the fifteen certificate from the British Board of Film Classification.

I saw this British TV movie in 1995 on A&E, and taped it the very next time was shown by A&E, with all the commercials left in so that when taping late at night I would not miss anything from having to restart the recording and possibly missing a cue. I watch my tape of it quite frequently, more than once a year since 1995. I soon found and bought a second-hand paperback copy of the novel (by Mary Wesley, an Englishwoman who started writing novels when she was 70 and her second husband's death had left her poor; she died at 90). I enjoy rereading the book.The story is lively, about differences between snobbish ambitious confident public-school (private school to North Americans) upper-class types and the others, and shows many of the "nobs" as rude and inconsiderate in their behaviour to family members and friends. It follows a beautiful girl from a rich, land-owning, big-house country family; she opts out and disappears, keeps her whereabouts a secret from them, and supports her life by supplying very expensive services to selected rich mostly-upper-class people well able to afford them. When it suddenly all falls apart, luck helps her start putting her life together again in a different and more conventional way, and while she is a little reluctant to to give up some very enjoyable aspects of her life until the crisis, she accepts that she cannot go on as she was, and decides to make a go of the third phase of her life. The filming is in big houses, in country districts, on country roads (some purporting to be the main road between Exeter and Cornwall), in places purporting to be in the Cornish town of Penzance, in the Scilly Isles, on a sailing yacht, in Exeter and Salisbury. The people look the parts they are playing, acting is quite good but not great, the dialogue is lively and amusing, and there are clear distinctions made between loving, liking, being in love, making love, and having sex, however enjoyable the last may be even without love. The story is hard-headed, realistic in its attitudes, and unsentimental. The lively conversation is liberated, but any lively action is mostly off-screen, and there is no violence.

I keep watching this movie every few months - my tape is already scratched and I don't care. Very smart, sensitive, intricate plot, with a subtle layer of sarcasm which makes it worth my time for the umpteenth time. The smart independent woman heroine portrayed in this movie should be an example to every woman who feels trapped - learn how to take advantage of life and of what you do best, and be prepared to re-think your life when changes make it necessary. Some of the men characters in this movie are so pathetic - just like in real life, while others - well, where could I find one? So... men may not find this movie so uplifting, except maybe for gawking at Serena Scott Thomas - one of the most beautiful actresses of our age (together with Robin Wright and Juliette Binoche).