Rotters' Club on BBC2

[Marina]

Anyone else enjoying this really well-cast and well-scripted adaptation? I know Jonathan Coe's novels have been discussed on the unputdownable books thread more than once, I am a huge fan.
And almost exactly the same age as he is, so the teen angst experienced by Ben, Lois, Doug, Claire & co is very close to home...
Just wish BBC2 had gone for a five or six part adaptation. They've telescoped a bit too much of the plot for my liking, but other than that, I love it
Floods of tears when Lois spoke again this week...

Lois and her sweet boyfriend were in the central Birmingham pub, The Tavern in the Town (he had just proposed marriage to her), when the IRA bomb went off (this was one of the real events woven into the novel).
She saw her boyfriend blown to pieces (she was physically unscathed because he caught the force of the blast) and the trauma made her mute.

I had this most disturbing feeling that I was fancying the boys, given the way the atmosphere of 1977 was so vividly recreated. Which was OK as a flashback to a hormonal 13 year old but Indecorous in a Middle Aged Matron.

Oh, so more flashbacks to Shoestring.

imo cicely was too good looking and no one had invented hair products in the 70s to achieve that kind of finish.

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Marina I was French 80-84 - are you called Marina in RL in which case we already know each other? Lake/Wydd and then Harborne if you will. And loving Rotters Club too of course!

God, the Country Girl. Raddlebarn Lane, what an appropriate name. And the Lazy Fox...sorry to hear the Brook is no more, but not terribly surprised. Don't suppose they have razed the Gun Barrels to the ground as well?
I thought Cicely was authentically toothy and conceited...and what a scary mix of mum and dad! Did anyone spot Tim Spall's eldest as Harding? He and Miss Eve are an item in real life apparently.
Could not agree more with Bundle that Claire's hair was far more realistic for the period. Poor love.
I thought Geoff Breton was very sweet as Ben but looked far too old alongside Rasmus Hardiker. He was the only member of the cast who looked like my average mid-seventies date

Yikes Sinclair I will CAT you! I'm NOT a Marina (British Leyland Morris or otherwise) in RL.
We had Harborne aspirations but Bearwood overdrafts
Where did you do your year out? Did you have the surreal pleasure of lunching with Mr "just checking you're not dead" Hallmark?

V. unrealistic when Cicely had her hair chopped and it fell into a bob!

Was Rasmus the authentically geeky Philip?

(I rather took to young Doug )

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I loved this too. Completely agree that it was too short- I was gutted to find out that last night's episode was the last, I thought I was settling down to a 20 part serial. I felt so weirdly connected to it all- the year the boys were in was the year at the neighbouring boy's school that all our boyfriends were in, so I got the same spooky feeling as MI, I almost found myself fancying Ben . It's so hard to avoid cliches like "it took me back", but it really, really did.

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Yes, what was implied is confirmed in the second book Dior. They cheated a bit really - you have NO clues at all to what Miriam witnessed in the first novel. I won't say any more because the trail of events that leads to discovering Miriam's fate is just one of the clevernesses of The Closed Circle.
Rasmus Hardiker was Philip and yes, young Doug was very cute. We thought he looked like a young David Morrissey (State of Play/Blackpool)
I had a surge of nostalgic adrenalin at the collecting the A Levels results final scene. That was me 24 years ago, in flapping dungarees and cheesecloth, stting on the school steps with my friends and plotting our brilliant careers to come...
Cod...It's a Scream? It's a Nightmare, more like! I worked at the Bournbrook just down the road. That main drag was quite something on Friday nights...

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