Rita, Sue and Bob too

[BeachBlondey]

As a Happy Valley fan, I was surprised to find out that the actors who played Nev and Clare in Happy Valley, were actually in two main roles of the Rita, Sue and Bob too film from the 80s.

It's made me think about that old film again, and I'm actually shocked that it was made at all.

There is some discussion online today about the film, and most comments are along the lines of "great film", "a British Classic", and so forth.

The plot (for those who haven't seen it), is centered around a fully grown married man, who seduces grooms two 15 year old school girls and engages in lots of sex with them, mainly in his car (iirc).

How the hell was this okay, to put this out as a comedy, even back then? And how can the majority of people who remember the film, still think it's a great British classic?

I agree with the others. It was never a comedy but it was a reality for more people than you might like to think.

I grew up on a sink estate and there were always older blokes sniffing around. It was seen as perfectly normal. The girls who had the 'boyfriends' in their late 20s/early 30s were seen as cool.

If you didn't have a kid by the time you left school you were leaving it a bit late.

It was horrible. It should be remembered. It should be highlighted. So many teenage girls were groomed, used and abused and thought that was love.

This. Have you even seen it, you certainly don't seem to get it.

16 was an adult then. Loads of people including myself started full time work at 16 years old.

Agreed. The really shocking thing is how little has changed in the interim.

These plays are very much the descendent of the Angry Young Men and the kitchen sink dramas of two decades before. What shocks me is how young some of the women playwrights were. Shelagh Delaney wrote 'A Taste of Honey' when she was only 19.

Dunbar was writing as part of a recognized genre, but had a raw talent and imagination. Sarah Kane was of the same ilk but even more controversial, and tragically took her own life at the age of 27.

As art, the plays written by these women are well-paced, well-plotted and well-written. They are tortured, disturbing, soul-harrowing works, but they deserve to be taken seriously.

I think it caused a stir back when it was released. I can't believe Mary Whitehouse would have let it go without commenting.

It's one of my favourite films that I have on DVD.
They were 16, not 15.
Both the actresses and actor have been in a variety of things since they made the film.
The actress who plays Rita was a main character in Emmerdale for quite a while.

Jesus, another one. WATCH the film first. It’s not a comedy, it’s not ‘promoting’ grooming or anything else.

‘16 was an adult then. Loads of people including myself started full time work at 16 years old’

16 wasn’t an ‘adult’ in then80s. FFS. Leaving school and having a job didn’t make you an adult.

I'm not talking about her beong old enough to have a job. I'm talking about a newspaper exploitation of a 16 year old young woman and presenting her as "'legal '"

I was also.fulltime working at 16 .but not quite as "glamorous " as page 3'!

My thoughts exactly. In fact, one of my favourite films

I recommend The Arbor which is a drama documentary about Andrea Dunbar’s difficult life.

Bumping this. Brilliant film in its own right, and will tell you everything about the background to Andrea Dunbar's play.

From age 16 onwards I never had a boyfriend younger than 23 - late 80s/early 90s At the time it was seen as expected and fine. My parents expressed no concern whatsoever. It was the same for all my friends. We were seen as adult and able to make adult decisions at a much younger age.I was actually discussing this with a friend yesterday. I was married at 19, running a home and had joined a life long career path - settled according to everyone around me. I wasn’t remotely ready for any of it, and it all ended messily in my mid twenties.
This is why I get a little impatient with people who use their own early adult achievements to criticise the current generation. You see it a lot on here “well when I was 21 I was married and had a mortgage blah blah blah”. There were very rigid expectations, very early, which many of us couldn’t live up to and we ended up crashing a few years later and then taking years to get back on track - it’s only just happening for me now.

If you think it’s wrong that 16 year olds were considered “adult” for sexual and “relationship” purposes, then that also applies to other expectations of “adulthood” surely?

Thank you. This is what I meant. I'm perhaps a bit clumsy in expressing myself. It wasn't portrayed as a seriously worrying situation. If a film was made now about the Rochdale girls, it would be serious and dark. This didn't feel like that. I remember watching it in 1987, and it was definitely viewed as a light hearted comedy by many, whereas I feel like people should have been thinking WTF. Can you imagine a film about the Rochdale victims, ending with a scene depicting the abuser jumping in to bed for a funny threesome?

One thing I've always thought about horror movies, is that they almost always feature a girl or woman, being chased by a murderous man. And we watch this for entertainment!!?? That's a bit fucked up, is it not?

You're really parading your ignorance now, with the most simplistic takes on story and meaning that are barely attaining Mary Whitehouse-level insight. There's a vast array of work on women in horror, some of it conservative, some feminist, all with more nuance than this basic reading. Your take is simply not how our imaginations work and not making films that explore and address the darker sides of the psyche will not stop those sides existing nor is that their purpose. While you're down the Dunbar rabbithole, also check out the work of director Alan Clarke, who made great and provocative works like Made in Britain, Christine, Elephant and many more. They might not be your idea of 'entertainment' but they're powerful and vital contributions to the world.

Similar. It was considered cool if you had a boyfriend who was older than you, brownie points if he had a job (didn’t matter if it was building work etc) and car and took you to the local pub where of course you engaged in underage drinking!

My mum was furious when I did this but was powerless to stop me. Me and my friends almost always didn’t date boys our own age but some did.

If I’d had a teenage daughter back then I probably would’ve sent her to boarding school but my DM threatened me with this and I said I’d run away, my best friend at a private convent had been expelled from two previous boarding schools before coming to our day school.

Absolutely correct.

And Andrea Dunbar wasent happy with the final film either ,she also thought it needs too" happily"
the 80,s was a very different era though and things that were considered funny.then I wouldn't find funny now
You only have too look at the likes of St Trinnian s ect ,school.girls from.say 15 were considered fair game
I left school in 1990 and went to college but some people in my year went straight to work I'm not saying it's right or that I condone it just that it was a very different era .

The “one thing I’ve thought about horror films” well at least eg with films like The Hitchhiker and other horror films it taught us to be aware of danger and as far as I recall I never hitchhiked, partly down to that film.

Compare and contrast to early 70s where Fred West picked up girls (hitchhiking possibly) and look what happened there. It was seen as far more acceptable then.

Ended to.happily *

I was surprised to find out that the actors who played Nev and Clare in Happy Valley, were actually in two main roles of the Rita, Sue and Bob too film from the 80s.

It's made me think about that old film again, and I'm actually shocked that it was made at all.

Have you seen the film? You were surprised to find out they were in it? I don’t know anyone that has watched the film that wouldn’t recognise the three main characters.

It’s a classic British film, not sure I’d call it a comedy. Although DH and I did say that if they re-enacted this scene for the end credits of Happy Valley with Sarah Lancashire as Sue that would have been a funny way to end the series!

I agree it was normal then.
It was always the young girls (who'd been groomed) who were to blame.
Men got off scot-free.
I find it a horrible film as it reminds me of that time but also because I don't think it is sufficiently clear how wrong Bob's behaviour is & the consequences for those young girls.

My sex education in 1969 was that it was the girl who set the standard in any relationship and the best contraceptive was the word No. It let boys/men off the hook completely and if you didn't say No then it was entirely your fault.

It wasn't normal then to have relationships with married men if you were a child. It wasn't normal to have relationships with teachers. I was the 17 in 1987 and I liked the film, but didn't find the film funny. It was shocking. Bill Wyman was still unacceptable - it's just that the men in power chose not to attack him - no one I know thought it was ok.

Sure there is more awareness now about grooming and the effects of abusive upbringings on children, but this kind of stuff still wasn't acceptable then.

and fwiw, 2 teachers at my kids school have had to resign in the last couple of years because they have had relationships with pupils. It still goes on. (and to the pp it isn't about girls dressing "provocatively" it's about men).

Yes, that was normal then for some. Normal now for many boys is watching vile, sadistic pornography online and expecting girls to perform acts that had barely been heard of in the 80's.

Why all of a sudden do films, books, songs etc. have to reflect what is thought to be morally right? If this was the case then there wouldn't be any interesting media at all.

Films aren't meant to be there to promote the events they portray: they aren't often intended to be a model for society. They are intended to entertain, to make you question, to make you reflect, to reflect your life back at you, to frighten you, to inform you, to shock you, to document history, to make you laugh, etc.

Rita, Sue and Bob too is a film which has always been quite darkly comedic; the relationship between the three main characters was never promoted as being idealistic or right and I don't remember people thinking it was at the time it was released. I'm sure it is realised that the point of the film was to shine a light on how socially acceptable this kind of behaviour was at the time. It is done in very clever and subtle way, using humour to make this sensitive topic more palatable to a general audience. It is a window into the social norms of the time and as such is an iconic British film of the kind that we shouldn't allow to be hidden away by the growing tide of whitewash over our media, our society and it's history.