Gregory's Girl

[Jockice]

...is on television in just over an hour. I love it. Possibly my second-most watched comedy film ever after Airplane!

I'll be watching it again tonight. I couldn't not watch it.

[Malcy]

Years since I've seen it. Thought I was ok so wouldn't mind watching it again. I remember seeing the sequel a few years back and it was a bit odd. Was he a teacher who ran away with a student?

[Jockice]

It's on the Drama channel at nine. I've never seen the follow-up. Couldn't see the need to.

[pigamus]

It's my favourite film. And I'm actually quite fond of the sequel, because I used to have it on the two-disc set, and I'd watch them both when I was drunk. It's profoundly inferior, but not hateful.

[rectorofstiffkey]

It's on the Drama channel at nine. I've never seen the follow-up. Couldn't see the need to.

I saw the follow-up, and wished I hadn't.  Creepy as.

[DrGreggles]

Love GG1. It's fucking great.
How come JGS never got all the comedy roles after this? 

Never seen the sequel.

[Shit Good Nose]

Never seen the sequel.

Abysmal.

As rectorofstiffkey says - creepy.  I don't know if you saw the Woody Allen thread over in Movies, but I raised the point about Manhattan being a bit "bleh".  Gregory's Two Girls is similar, except that it doesn't have anything which Manhattan has as positives.

But it's not just creepy, it is REALLY bad.  There's practically nothing to redeem it - it's not funny, the acting is terrible, the script sounds like it was written by a film student...just dogshit all around.

Gregory's Two Girls is the answer to the question "why won't anyone let Bill Forsyth make another film?"

[Neomod]

One of the greatest coming of age youth films ever. And it even made Cumbernauld look lovely. Oh and of course, Clare Grogan.

The first four Forsythe films are sublime. Comfort and Joy is still one of my favourite Christmas films.

"Hello Folks"

It was a real shame about Gregory's Two Girls. Not good. Not good. At. All.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Love GG1. It's fucking great.
How come JGS never got all the comedy roles after this? 

He's dressing up in drag and playing Alice Morgan in " Luther " nowadays , of course.

[kalowski]

I was Eric the photographer in a school play of this. My line, "tits" was censored to "boobs".

[Jockice]

Actually, the first time I ever saw it was on a very rare trip to the cinema with both my parents (actually, I can't think of a single other occasion when I went to the pictures with both. And the only cultural things I can ever remember going with the pair were seeing the Buddy play and the Rab C Nesbitt stage show). Anyway, I digress, it was part of a double bill with Chariots Of Fire, and when Eric etc were doing the tit shots at the start of the film, I sat there wondering if I would be okay to laugh. I was 15 at the time and it felt a bit awkward. Fortunately both parents loved the whole thing too. My mum especially. It ended up being one of her favourite films ever.

The follow-up is on youtube. I'm tempted to watch it just to see if it's as bad as you lot are making out. At some point.

Incidentally, my favourite bits in the original are Gregory walking across the pitch on his way into school, the line 'ravioli please', the boy smoking a pipe in the school toilets, and the fact that Charlie doesn't speak until the very end when he points out that Andy has spelled Caracas wrongly on the sign.

Odd that a film about a clumsy lovelorn Scottish teenager should have appealed so much to me though.

[DrGreggles]

I've just thought of the kid being shit at the high jump and it caused me to giggle.

[Jockice]

I've just thought of the kid being shit at the high jump and it caused me to giggle.

And me.

[kngen]

"Hello Folks"

It's been about quarter of a century since I last saw it, but that still pops into my head whenever I hear an ice-cream van, and I laugh. Now that's an enduring comedy nugget!

[kngen]

Years since I've seen it. Thought I was ok so wouldn't mind watching it again. I remember seeing the sequel a few years back and it was a bit odd. Was he a teacher who ran away with a student?

I feel like The Girl in the Picture was its unofficial sequel. It's not that great a film, either (and I mostly enjoyed picking apart how fast and loose it plays with West End geography, as it was filmed around the corner from my old house) but dear god, it's a million times better than Gregory's Two Girls - that was unwatchable.

[Malcy]

It's been about quarter of a century since I last saw it, but that still pops into my head whenever I hear an ice-cream van, and I laugh. Now that's an enduring comedy nugget!

I do the exact same thing.

[ajsmith2]

One of the grab quotes on the poster for Gregorys Two Girls was 'Admirably Perverse'. That always sticks in my mind as a particularly desperate attempt to wrest something usable from what must surely have been an overly negative review.

[rectorofstiffkey]

Where Gregory's Two Girls went horribly wrong is in the attempt to keep the premise of the film very similar.  Presumably this was intended to be amusing - twenty years on, Gregory's just the same, how amusingly inept he is! - but ignores the humungous stumbling-block that a sixteen-year old boy being infatuated with a sixteen-year old girl but not knowing what to do about it is charming, while a 35-year old teacher being infatuated with a sixteen-year old girl is unpleasant and acting upon it would be actually illegal (at least it would now).

I had a look at the trailer again and it did remind me of something I'd quite forgotten - the scene where he and the girl are found together in a field and pretend to have been looking at badgers (a random explanation that means that Gregory is then able to accidentally say 'beaver' instead).  Which is exactly the same cover story that Ron Davies came up with a couple of years later when he was found, IIRC, visiting a dogging(?) area early in the morning.  Could it be that Ron Davies was Gregory's Two Girls' biggest fan?

[Brundle-Fly]

How come JGS never got all the comedy roles after this? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66yX2kjQgs

Dated, but not awful. And always great to see Sophie Thompson and Steven O' Donnell on the screen.

[kngen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66yX2kjQgs

Dated, but not awful. And always great to see Sophie Thompson and Steven O' Donnell on the screen.

He was in Hot Metal, too. Clearly had a thing for hack-related comedies (Hot Metal was truly great though. The first season, at least)

[Malcy]

He was also in 'Welcome To Strathmuir'. A pilot written by Absolutely's Jack Docherty & Moray Hunter.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xyb5qTigGpw

[Shaky]

Where Gregory's Two Girls went horribly wrong is in the attempt to keep the premise of the film very similar.  Presumably this was intended to be amusing - twenty years on, Gregory's just the same, how amusingly inept he is! - but ignores the humungous stumbling-block that a sixteen-year old boy being infatuated with a sixteen-year old girl but not knowing what to do about it is charming, while a 35-year old teacher being infatuated with a sixteen-year old girl is unpleasant and acting upon it would be actually illegal (at least it would now).

I had a look at the trailer again and it did remind me of something I'd quite forgotten - the scene where he and the girl are found together in a field and pretend to have been looking at badgers (a random explanation that means that Gregory is then able to accidentally say 'beaver' instead).  Which is exactly the same cover story that Ron Davies came up with a couple of years later when he was found, IIRC, visiting a dogging(?) area early in the morning.  Could it be that Ron Davies was Gregory's Two Girls' biggest fan?

The writing's on the wall from the opening dream sequence with Gregory shagging the schoolgirl. The rest of the film lurches around from that sort of sub-American Pie shite to weird eco-thriller. Quite amazingly ill-conceived.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I actually want to see "Gregory's Two Girls" now, just to see exactly how bad it is. "Lolita" played for laffs? I'd like to see anyone trying to make that film nowadays. The last film that Bill Forsythe made, too.

[ajsmith2]

I actually want to see "Gregory's Two Girls" now, just to see exactly how bad it is. "Lolita" played for laffs? I'd like to see anyone trying to make that film nowadays. The last film that Bill Forsythe made, too.

Knock yourself out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUMMRvGxyu8

I only saw it the once in the cinema when it came out. Even at the time, I remember thinking the opening scene was horribly misjudged.

The end is off too. Now the final shot in the Gregorys Girl cinematic universe is of smashed up circuit boards and computer equipment on a pebble beach.

[Jockice]

Someone on another thread mentioned great things with spectacularly crap follow-ups. Sounds like we might have a winner here.

[Bennett Brauer]

I stopped watching after 3 minutes because the girl reminded me of Graham Rix. How's that for irony?

[St_Eddie]

In secondary school, a teacher put a VHS tape of Gregory's Girl on for our class during activity week because it was his favourite film.  All that I can remember now is a kid dressed as a penguin.

Fascinating anecdote, right?

[ajsmith2]

I stopped watching after 3 minutes because the girl reminded me of Graham Rix. How's that for irony?

That line couldn't help but put me in mind of this top tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_boOIcRQ3E

[Jockice]

I stopped watching after 3 minutes because the girl reminded me of Graham Rix. How's that for irony?

When she pulled down her trousers it sent you in fits?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

That line couldn't help but put me in mind of this top tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_boOIcRQ3E

Ha! Knew it was going to be that very song before clicking onto it! Top video, too.