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 watched it in my late teens and remember finding it quite dark and disturbing. I know people who love it though!

That was life for that author. It was life for a number of poor kids growing up in the 70s and 80s. Have you heard of Jimmy Saville?

Even back in the 70s as a teenager this enraged me and don’t even get me started on the top shelves of every newsagent in the high street. Some of those front covers! An absolute disgrace! If you protested you were vilified as ‘frigid’ or ‘uptight’. It was vile.

The cooking money scene still cracks me up

I've just looked up the writer of this.
Such tragic story .

The film is very realistic of life way back for young females.

Also, in those days if your drunk husband beat the shit out of you and the children,the Police did nothing.....it was seen as 'normal'.

Another gritty film from the late 60s is Up the Junction.

It wasn't seen as morally acceptable, the film was quite shocking.

I dated a guy of almost 27 when I was 16, he was a lecturer at the local college, no one including my Mother batted an eyelid. This was in 1982.

I do not want history erased I want it remembered to try and educate and stop behaviours because they are not socially acceptable.

If you can marry at 16 then you can have sex or appear on page 3 of The Sun. Times were very different then.

I mean back then we had tits on page 3 of a national newspaper - that to me is one of the most bizarre aspects of that time. That to me alone sets the bar of that era and things have moved on

And now we have love island, naked attraction, naked and afraid, and other such crap which encourages young women parading round half naked, or fully naked, in order to attract the attention of men and positively encourage them to shag on a tv programme which, given the narrative of this era, shows how little we have moved on.

How many girls are still being groomed now? Just look at what happened in Rochdale
Not just Rochdale.
I cant speak for every town and city in the UK but you can certainly uncover grooming in most Northern towns today. You dont even have to look very hard.

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

To be fair, I watched it 36 years ago, so no, I did not put two and two together.

Grooming is not a Northern thing, grooming happens right up and down the country.

You do know this is what Prince Andrew did? And people still make excuses for him on MN. Nothing has really changed.

My Mum grew up on that estate, it was grim. It was written by someone who lived that experience and we should view it as "of its time".

Very funny, definitely NWS.

I have three friends from there. They love that film and say it is a really accurate depiction. In fact we were only talking about it on Saturday evening.

You can have a certain nostalgia for things that were actually quite grim. Those of us who had a 70s childhood and 80s teens can reminisce and don’t need to be “informed” about how inappropriate and crap a mountain of things were. We know! But that was life. Our life.

Yes, it was sold as a comedy.

Definitely not sold as a dark, 'kitchen sink' type drama, which was how it came across to me and personally, I found it really rather depressing.

But what do I know, the film East is East was billed as a 'comedy' and yes, it was a very watchable but a comedy? Definitely not; I found it very sad and moving.

Grooming is not a Northern thing, grooming happens right up and down the country
I know that.But I was only commenting on the areas I know and work.
I didn't want people jumping on me saying ' well you dont know whats happening in such a place'
However I still get jumped on!🤷‍♀️

Funny you say that - I was only wondering the other day (after starting to watch HV) where I’d seen that actor before.

Of course R, S and B too was outrageous, but it was bloody funny. I don’t see that it’s any worse - or even as bad - as a lot of the gratuitous and sickening violence in a lot of films, not to mention widely available porn.

And it wasn’t seen as ‘OK’ for older men to be having sex with younger girls, any more than murder, violence and sadism on film is seen as ‘OK’. It wasn’t depicting, or trying to depict, what anyone thought of as the norm.

I was roughly the same age as the actresses in the film in the same era. Age was viewed a bit differently then. I was academic ,but a lot of my contemporaries left school at 16. No jobs in the area? Kennels, horse stables, hotels etc might have onsite accommodation. You could join the forces at 16.

My parents who left school before 1972 could have held down jobs at 15.

So it was a different world from the MN universe where people agonise over 16 year olds going to The Reading Festival, or 17 year olds going to Ibiza.

Although Bob was obviously a sleaze.

Absolutely 😯that was Siobbhan Fiernan no idea. Wasn’t the blonde woman in coronation street?

I’d definitely try to pretty up the outside space a bit. It looks very bare and bleak. I know it’d cost, but some bigger plants in nice pots or tubs, a table and chairs with a pot of daffodils, etc.

It was shocking then as much as it is now. It's not a comedy, it has comedic moments but not a comedy. It's gritty and true to life. And this was indeed what plenty of people went through. I had a 34 year old 'boyfriend' when I was 17. I shudder to think now. I think films like this are important

It wasn't perfectly acceptable back then. I'm the same age as Mandy Smith and remember the story breaking when they had split up and she had turned 16. There was a furore about it. Although obviously not as great as there would be today. They later married and appeared on Wogan on their wedding day. Her mother sanctioned the relationship and even went out with Bill Wyman's son!

Same! My best friends dad was exactly like this.

And the old Irish bloke on the balcony shouting!