Billy Liar

This 1963 film adaptation of the novel by Keith Waterhouse is one of director Schlesinger’s finest. It’s certainly also one of Tom Courtenay’s finest performances, who stars in the titular role as a young undertaker’s clerk. His attempts to escape his humdrum working class existence and his nagging parents by means of compulsive lying get him into all sorts of trouble.

Part comedy, part drama, the story is set in the Bradford area in Yorkshire, where Billy Fisher (T. Courtenay) lives with mum Alice (Mona Washbourne) and dad Geoffrey (Wilfred Pickles), who are at their tethers end with their lazy and quite quite frankly, good for nothing son. That said, Billy might be useful if only he had a more interesting job. At least frail grandma Florence (Ethel Griffies) doesn’t give him much grief. One day, during breakfast and with his parents angry again because their son had overslept and thus is late for work, Billy spins one of his lies by pretending he won’t be staying much longer in the parental home, as he received a job offer in London as a scriptwriter for a comic called Danny Boon (Leslie Randall).

That’s news to his parents, who weren’t even aware of the fact that Billy is a scriptwriter… Knowing full well that it’s fibs, his mum starts mocking Billy as he’s about to leave the kitchen. Imagining himself as a soldier, he machine-guns his parents into oblivion. Never mind imagining himself as a soldier - one of his biggest and most regular daydreams sees him as the military hero of an imaginary country called Ambrosia, where he delivers wild and passionate political speeches as if he were the undisputed ruler.

The reality of his doom and gloom job as an undertaker’s clerk brings him back to planet earth soon enough though, with his long suffering boss, the stern Mr. Shadrack (Leonard Rossiter) giving him a hard time whenever he can (and there are many opportunities). Suffice to say, Shadrack suffers multiple deaths by machine gun fire at the hand of Billy whenever he’s annoyed (which is often)! Only Billy’s colleague Arthur Crabtree (Rodney Bewes) is more sympathetic towards Billy, though it doesn’t stop Billy from lying to Arthur by pretending he’s making a phone call to Danny Boon’s London office in order to arrange a meeting regarding his script! On one occasion, Mr. Shadrack tasks Billy with mailing a large shipment with advertising calendars intended for potential customers, but instead of posting out the calendars, Billy hides them back home in his wardrobe and keeps the postage money.

It’s only a matter of time before the dirty deed comes to light but instead of firing him (which Billy hopes for), Mr. Shadrack keeps him in his employ - at least until he has repaid every penny of the stolen money… This scenario leads to more fantasising and daydreaming, with Billy imagining himself locked up in Wormwood Scrubs Prison.

It goes without saying that when it comes to Billy’s love life, things are just as complicated if not more so, as he’s double-dating. On the one hand, he’s dating the shy and uptight Barbara (Helen Fraser), who not only doesn’t believe in sex before marriage but she won’t allow kissing either! At the end of the other spectrum is the brash and slightly vulgar Rita (Gwendolyn Watts) with her peroxide blonde hair and manners belonging to a fishwife. Thing is, Billy, in an act of stupidity, has presented both Babs and Rita with the same engagement ring… Currently, Babs is the proud wearer but when Rita wants the ring back (Billy lied to her that the ring is at a jewellers for repair) the heat is on! Billy’s attempts to get the ring back from Babs as apparently it’s slightly too large and needs to be adjusted at a jewellery shop are hilarious and it gets funnier still when Babs keeps insisting the ring fits just fine. At one point, Rita keeps knocking on Billy’s front door to ask for the ring - in the very afternoon when Babs is in the house to meet his parents for the first time. And when dad Geoffrey spots ‘the other lass’ through the window, it causes an argument with Billy, which in turn causes grandma breathing difficulties. Billy’s double-dating comes to a huge blow-up during a night out at the local dance hall, which is among the funniest scenes of the film.

As he keeps on lying and daydreaming and imagines himself the ruler of Ambrosia, with elaborate marches and military parades, there are setbacks and tragedies in the real world to deal with however. For example, the humiliation when comic Danny Boon visits town and makes it clear that he’s not interested in Billy’s writing skills. And poor grandma dies in hospital, with Billy arriving seven minutes too late and thus missing saying ‘goodbye’ to her.

The only ray of sunshine is provided by Billy’s ex-girlfriend Liz (Julie Christie), an absolute free-spirit who has recently returned to her hometown but is already bored with the place and its people. She has a real understanding of Billy’s mind and urges him to pack a bag and come with her to London, which he agrees to. As they both sit in the train carriage, he suddenly disembarks with the excuse of buying some milk but deliberately takes too long and as he returns to the platform, the train has just started to move, with Liz looking out of the window as if she knew. Billy makes his way home again to his parents house, dressed in his Ambrosia military outfit and with a marching army behind him.

This is perhaps the saddest scene, as it demonstrates that Billy Fisher, nicknamed ‘Billy Liar’ by all, only ever has success when he escapes into his imaginary worlds while in reality, he doesn’t have the guts to turn his humdrum life around for the better. Whether this is due to his working class upbringing (“Don’t get above your station”) or due to him being incapable of taking risks in his life - who can tell.

A cinematic triumph in every sense of the word, BILLY LIAR has just been released as a 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (4K UHD & Blu-ray) complete with a 64-page booklet. Additional bonus material includes audio commentaries, commentaries, interviews, ‘Remembering Billy Liar’ with Tom Courtenay and Helen Fraser, and ‘A Look through the Keith Waterhouse Archive’.