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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think that Shirley Valentine should have stayed in Greece?

88 replies

lockedownloretta · 30/12/2020 23:48

Why on earth did she ever go back to a horrible marriage to a man who throws food at her?

She should have stayed, worked in the bar, had her own life in the sunshine.

(Huge sigh)

OP posts:
Sewrainbow · 30/12/2020 23:49

She did didn't she?

Bagamoyo1 · 30/12/2020 23:50

She did stay in Greece

PersonaNonGarter · 30/12/2020 23:51

She did stay?

DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult · 30/12/2020 23:51

I thought she did stay there in the end.

Its been a long time since I've seen it though.

I would have stayed.

longtompot · 30/12/2020 23:52

I wasn't sure she did. Thought it ended with her and her dh sat on the waters edge drinking a glass of something cold.

x2boys · 30/12/2020 23:53

I can't remember I thought her husband came to find her? Without googling though I can't remember if she went back with him?

WillYouDoTheFandango · 30/12/2020 23:53

She did stay. She said she hoped he stayed for a holiday but I took away from that that she wasn’t going back.

Original poster
lockedownloretta · 30/12/2020 23:54

He comes to find her and i think she goes back.
Watching it now. Kkkķkkķķ

OP posts:
Nettleskeins · 30/12/2020 23:56

I'm not sure whether she stayed or not. It is a play and it is open ended. Maybe the husband stays in Greece too. At the end of the film she is talking to him, not heard by us. But at least she is talking to him finally not just herself. None of the other characters listen, they all have "scripts". But finally we get sense there is no "script" and husband and wife are communicating, and he is listening.
It is such a clever play.
But dated...

andpeggy1 · 30/12/2020 23:56

I bloody live this film! So chuffed it was on this afternoon!
The one thing I was most shocked about was she was being written off as a dowdy middle aged woman at 42!!!!! Christ I've only just turned 32, 10 years time I don't want to be I. Middle age territory!

mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork · 30/12/2020 23:58

Agree with fandango above.
Always drives me mad that people think she had just had a midlife crisis and intended to return to her husband when she had "come to her senses". Also, lots of critics seemed to think she had fallen for costas when he was pretty incidental and she would have decided to change her life and stay in Greece whether she had met him or not.

Original poster
lockedownloretta · 31/12/2020 00:02

Yes, open ending. I like to think she stays without joe.
And yes, so very dated.

The dressing up to travel, the english tourists only wanting egg and chips, the fact that shirley is middle aged at 42....

OP posts:
CountessFrog · 31/12/2020 00:04

I met Willy Russell (the writer) several times in the late 1990s. He was such a lovely man, truly genuine. I had so many questions to ask him and that was one of them but I was too busy being in awe of him.

x2boys · 31/12/2020 00:05

Yes but that's very 1980,s the fashion and the hair styles of some women in the 80,s was very aging ,I remember with my mum

Llamapolice · 31/12/2020 00:10

I once read an interview with Pauline Collins where she said words to the effect that based on her conversations with fans she had observed that women who are happy in their own marriages choose to believe Shirley went home and women unhappy in their marriages choose to believe she stays in Greece.

Something for you all to consider at this time of reflectionGrin

8obbingabout · 31/12/2020 00:15

She did stay didn't she?

They should have made a sequel Id have loved to have seen what she got up to after

kwiksavenofrillsusername · 31/12/2020 00:17

@andpeggy1

I bloody live this film! So chuffed it was on this afternoon! The one thing I was most shocked about was she was being written off as a dowdy middle aged woman at 42!!!!! Christ I've only just turned 32, 10 years time I don't want to be I. Middle age territory!
That horrified me too! I'm only 5 years off her age and I still feel quite young. But people used to age so much quicker in the 80s. I was watching old Eastenders and Arthur and Pauline were in their early 40s when it begun, yet they were all cardigans and flat caps.

Whenever I watch this movie, I get cravings for old-fashioned egg and chips. Why don't people eat that for dinner anymore? My grandma cooked the eggs in lard and they were delicious.

hansgrueber · 31/12/2020 00:18

Obvious how so many of us spent the afternoon. I'm now on Roadhouse.

FlorisFigure · 31/12/2020 00:19

I am happy with my marriage but I hope Shirley stayed in Greece. Or she did a compromise where she returned to the U.K. during the winter, out of season, and was in Greece every March to October.

Mydogmylife · 31/12/2020 00:19

See, I always thought that she stayed, he went home but they parted on good terms

Original poster
lockedownloretta · 31/12/2020 00:20

I'll tell you what really pissed me off. Thecway she kept saying chips and eggAngry

Like saying pepper and salt or chips and fish. Just wrong!

OP posts:
CoffeeCreamandSugar · 31/12/2020 00:20

Id like to imagine she had stayed in Greece with her husband and he saw the error of his ways... but it’s been quite a few years since I watched it Grin

billy1966 · 31/12/2020 00:23

Great movie.

I liked to think her husband by going to Greece was open to change.

She had loved him early in their marriage.

JetBlackSteed · 31/12/2020 00:25

Oh I always thought she stayed!
Haven't seen it recently again though.

Original poster
lockedownloretta · 31/12/2020 00:26

He was vile though....throwing the dinner at her, not talking, making demands of her....

OP posts: