Play for Today Nuts in May (1970–1984) watch online HD

I always wonder if Nuts In May was intended to be as hilarious as it turns out to be. Full of quotable lines, the trendy-liberal 70s Keith and Candice-Marie may be overwhelming stereotypes, but they work extremely well. It's a simple tale, subtle in places, but with a great deal of depth. There's a moral here - how ever much you try and escape from the society at large and try and "do your own thing", there's always some authority above you, or someone who comes along and spoils things. Keith may be obstinate and a know-it-all, yet he has a certain sensitivity to his character, he cracks under the pressure, and though he may be a liberal, he isn't exactly tolerant and seems power-crazy. Candice-Marie seems to have a heart of gold, but she's really looking for excitement in her humdrum life. Ray may seem lonely but he has his head screwed on the right way and just doesn't want to be hassled. As for Finger and Honky, they are obnoxious perhaps, uncouth maybe, but they provide comedy and just want to have fun. There's a depth of character in Nuts in May that is refreshing, but there's plenty of humour... watching Keith and Candice-Marie embarrass Ray into singing their appalling hippy zoo song is totally hilarious, and the subtle interplay between the couple is marvellous at times. Mike Leigh gives us characters that are human, with flaws and quirks - there's a great deal of honesty here. It stands up for repeated viewings both for its comedy and its subtlety, and its classic 'quotability'. A masterpiece, frankly.

This is a good film to see for anyone starting on the long, twisted road that is trying to understand the British. Keith is a deeply anal-retentive man on a camping holiday with his dim, lisping girlfriend, Candace Marie. When a rough biker couple arrives at the campsite next door, his ordered little world is destroyed and his sanity nearly goes with it.

The character of Keith is absolutely brilliant: I've never seen such a deeply flawed, contradictory, human character so well written and well portrayed on screen. Roger Sloman is utterly convincing and very funny. Alison Steadman is also very good and the whole film is difficult to forget.

The Morris Minor convertible used in the NUTS IN MAY Play for Today belonged to my family. My mother was shopping in Wareham Dorset, when members of the BBC had noticed the car parked in the town and waited for the owner to return, when my mother came back from shopping, they asked if they could use the car in a Play for Today. It belonged to my father, and it was agreed this was OK. The BBC kindly lent us a car during the filming. When we saw the play, we really enjoyed it, and could not believe just how much the car was filmed due to the main characters role, the car was almost as much of a celebrity as the leading stars! We recorded the play on video, and remember that this was such a well loved play that the viewers requested for it to be repeated, so with such an overwhelming amount of the public wanting to see it again it was repeated, and is still remembered as one of the best loved plays that ever was. perhaps the BBC would like to repeat it again?

This little film is quite simply a joy to watch. Leigh's gentle humour and wry outlook on life shines through every scene. Effectively plotless, the film follows London couple Keith and Candice Marie Pratt on their camping holiday in Dorset.

The humour derives from the situations that the couple encounter which bring out the curious mixture of autocracy and liberalism in their characters. This reaches a climax with the arrival at the campsite of Honkey and Finger, a couple of rowdy Brummie bikers who infuriate Keith with their free and easy approach to life. When they try to light a campfire (forbidden by the camp rules), Keith attempts to lay down the law and all hell breaks loose.

The film is one long string of hilarious set pieces (still quoted in my family years after seeing it)My favourite is when Honkey and Finger shout 'get back to your tent' to Keith, who loses his temper and shows his true colours by shouting 'AND YOU GET BACK TO YOUR TENEMENTS!'

Overall a non-stop laughter session. But beware, the comedy is low key and character based. If your favourite comedy is 'The Nutty Professor' you probably won't like this much.

I don't believe my comment contains any spoilers. But just in case someone might feel it does, I marked the spoiler-box.

Some of the commentators have called this movie one of the funniest ever. So, I was expecting to laugh a lot. However, to my surprise I did not laugh a single time. This does not mean that I want to say this is a boring movie, not at all. I just couldn't laugh. I saw the comic element in Keith's behaviour all right, but I believe, for me he has not so much been a funny figure but rather a tragic and a sad one. The laughter, so to speak, got stuck in my throat. Maybe this is because I could see elements of Keith's character in many people, including myself. The urge to control everything, and at the same time the tears of desperation, when he finds that this is just not possible. But his tears may also express the longing to be freed from the curse laid on him.

On the other hand, there is much to be said about the other characters too. They are far from being the heroes of this story, just as little as Keith is the anti-hero. Why does Keith's wife accept, to near self-abandonment, nearly all of his painfully annoying behaviour? Why does the couple with the motorbike act so irresponsibly? Putting his exaggerated reactions aside for a moment, Keith is actually right, when he speaks up against lighting an open fire in this environment, and he is also right in expecting some consideration from the couple for his desire to sleep, when they come back late at night.

All in all, the characters of this movie are not black and white at all. Just laughing at Keith does not do him justice. The real strength of this film is to my opinion that it shows the complexity and ambivalence of each character. All of the people in it are human beings. They, including Keith, are all of us.

Where it all began for Mike Leigh. This was a TV movie about a married couple who go camping. She is an easily led dimwit, he an absolute boor. He marches around the countryside dutifully doing guidebook walks without really taking anything in ("What's that, Keith?" "It's Number 12.") and sticking to his own pre-arranged plans no matter what ("We can't do that tomorrow, we're doing something else tomorrow!") Of course, he goes to pieces by the end, but the best bits are that sheer comedy of embarrassment that Britain does so well.

This is one of the funniest things i've ever seen in my life and what's more it doesn't need to resort to crudity to be effective, something that's unheard of nowadays, not that i'm on a moral crusade but the world potrayed in this film looks rather quaint in the cut and thrust of the 21st century. I'll knock your head off !

Lucas and Speilberg take note this is how you make great films....

that's how I feel about this made for TV film, from the seventies, if you are a fan of Independent cinema, then I urge you to go out and buy this film,. Mike Leigh, along with Ken Loach are arguably Britains' best film makers, and although not to everyones taste, you can only enjoy films such as Nuts in May, how can a film about a strict vegetarian couple on a camping trip can be so good? I hear you ask , trust me it is. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who has not seen it, but you will almost wet yourself with laughter. Special mention must go to Roger Sloman, who is one of the most underrated British actors ever. He has turned out in mostly the same role as a 'typical b*****d' such as Keith Pratt, and the TV man/holiday maker in Neils bedroom in the Young Ones. Along with Alison Steadman ( another Mike Leigh regular )

the performances are fantastic, watch out for the scene where they 'force' fellow camper Ray to join in their sing-a-long, Unforgettable * * * * *

I can honestly say i cried myself to sleep the first time i watched this,it was one of the funniest things i had ever seen.The scene with the sea song is absolutely hilarious,and cringingly embarrassing,you really feel for Ray as he is pressed into joining in.

The acting is superb.Especially Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman.

What makes it so good is that we all know characters like Keith and Candice-Marie in everyday life. But real people like them would not watch this film they don't find this funny at all,they just do not understand it.

I have watched it with people who think it's awful, it went completely over their heads, people rather like Chris it seems.

To anyone who loves to observe the eccentricities of the human condition, this film is a real gem.

Other reviewers have rightly pointed out that very little actually happens: it's just an English couple on a camping trip in the 1970s. But that analysis is to ignore the genius at work in the writing, and the acting of the two leads. Every frame, every line, every gesture is filled with humour and pathos - if you're prepared to look for it.

Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman are just sublime in their portrayal of the new-age suburban middle class couple. We scorn them, we pity them, we recognise them and we like them (albeit we wouldn't want to spend much time with them).

For me, the other characters - though necessary for the 'plot,' are less well-drawn. But the two leads are on screen so constantly it barely matters.

There's not much else to say, really. You just have to watch it. A warning though: once discovered, this is the sort of film you want to watch again and again. The dilemma is how you strike the balance between savouring it regularly without getting to know it too well.... I think the important thing is to use your discretion.

Watching this movie has become a Christmas tradition for my family and it gets funnier every year. The plot is pretty mundane, but the dialogue and characters make for nonstop laughter.

While on holiday at a campsite, Candice Marie and Keith argue about whether it is necessary to chew each mouthful of food 72 times, take 3 pairs of shoes for a day hike, and have a few hysterical run-ins with their fellow campers.

My 11yr old daughter and her 12yr old friend chose this movie for a sleepover in what can only be described as a flash of brilliance. As I cooked in the kitchen I kept being drawn in by their laughter, giggling and quizzical expressions. Being a long time Mike Leigh fan, I eventually just squeezed into the couch beside them and proceeded to watch one of the funniest movies I have ever, EVER seen. I like hearing that it has become a tradition for people, and I think I will try that this year over the Christmas holidays.

My daughter and her friend now make a point of staring the other down and growling, "Now Candice-Marie..."

Mike Leigh's early film 'Nuts in May' was first aired on BBC TV in January 1976 as part of their 'Play for Today' series.

It charts the experience of Keith (Roger Sloman) and Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) who are somehow made for one another (at school) and never quite break out of the mould which their staid and sensible schoolteachers have wrought for them.

At no point - it seems - in their careful upbringing have they quite grasped that, in life, things are not always what they seem.. and that people don't always mean what they say.

Or that the rules and regulations that apply to children cannot possibly be carried forward successfully into adult life.

The title of the play is, itself, a clue. It is one of the few benefits of getting older that I can remember skipping enthusiastically, aged 4 years old and singing the song that goes 'Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May. Here we go gathering nuts in May, on a cold and frosty morning'. Or, at least, that's what I sincerely believe I remember.

But this is madness, isn't it ? There are no nuts in May to gather. Nuts are the result of the growth of trees during the summer ! Squirrels gather them in Autumn, bury them.. and often forget about them. Nobody in their right mind ever tried to go gathering nuts in May, with any reasonable hope of success.

But Keith and Candice-Marie seem to feel honour bound to do so. Their life, in early adulthood is tied inexorably the daft things well-meaning, misinformed 'grown-ups' have told them when they were very young.

By some awful mischance, they have failed to reap the many benefits that healthy scepticism and good old adolescent rebellion confers.

Roger kisses a hot-water bottle named 'Prudence' each night, when he should be saying something else.

Although I couldn't begin to tell you where to get hold of a print of this great film. It's so good, that any effort would be well justified... even if the hot-water bottle is not actually named 'Prudence'. After all, it was over 30 years ago when I last saw this film.

A great film, presenting a dystopian look at how wrong 'right' living can be. I felt Lots of empathy for the characters and one can't help choosing sides and seeing familiar behaviour and sentiments, on both ends of the social spectrum. A film that has subtle and witty demonstrations of the hypocrisy and naiveté of forming stereotypes and preconceptions of living to a particular 'method'.

I couldn't help but make a connection between the brilliant portrayal of Keith and Steve Pemberton's Harvey Denton from the league of gentlemen comedy show. The mannerisms and general portrayal of Keith must have been an inspiration to the League. If it was not it really helps to identify an English stereotype :)

I've just had the pleasure of watching Abigail's Party again. It was very powerful, and I wondered if I should comment on that film, but decided that the original idea of commenting on Nuts In May was the right way to go.

What can I say about Nuts In May? This film is a is a perennial favourite. And let me reiterate 'film' - unlike Abigail's Party the whole of this looks like it was shot on film. Not that I'm denigrating the filming of Abigail's Party, that was great too.

Call it mad, but I think Nuts In May is on a level with Raging Bull, and visceral character studies of that nature; even though it seems so mundane on the surface, it is in fact a seething series of tableaux of petty minded and petit-bourgeois preconceptions.

But then again, Keith is a noble and heroic figure, one that you find yourself rooting for again and again. Alison Steadman is surprisingly good in her role as the passive-aggressive wife who just wants to experience a life outside the confines of her cosy Keith-life, for once, I only say that because it's so radically different from her signature role in Abigail's Party.

I must agree with that guy who didn't understand the film at all: why does it end with a pig? Anyway, that's enigmatic, and we don't criticise David Lynch for it, do we?

A new age couple go on a camping holiday where they visit several places of little interest. Their attitudes, however, lead to confrontations with other holiday-makers.

This television film from Mike Leigh was part of the 'Play for Today' series that ran in the UK throughout the 70's and into the 80's. Leigh also contributed the brilliant Abigail's Party for this format. Like that one, Nuts in May also features the great comic actress Alison Steadman. You would certainly be forgiven for not noticing this, however, as the character she plays here, Candice-Marie, could not literally be more different to the infamous Beverly from Abigail's Party. Where the latter was overbearing and vulgar, Candice-Marie is a shrewish simpleton. It's a testament to Alison Steadman's skills as an actress that these two characters are so incredibly different. But Nuts in May is a more expansive production than Abigail's Party in that it uses several outdoor locations and seems to be filmed like a movie proper, albeit a small-scale one. But that is one of the strengths of the production, because it feels so very real, and the humour always seems like genuine moments. It reminds me very much of the naturalistic, observations of the sitcom 'The Office', except, of course, that Ricky Gervais master-work was made quarter of a century later! One of the marvels of Nuts in May is it remains absolutely hilarious throughout, when you think how fast many British comedies date, this is rather an incredible achievement.

Like 'The Office' though the strength of the production is in the writing, the performances and the realism. Aside from Alison Steadman there is a colossal comic performance from Roger Sloman as Keith Pratt. Keith is on a par with other British comic creations like Basil Fawlty and David Brent. He is a self-important man who has a barrow load of insecurities and contradictions. In other words he is a very human creation. And Keith and Candice-Marie are a brilliant pair of characters to base the film around. Where he is overbearing, anal and patronising, she is dim-witted; but much of the humour derives from moments where she passively-aggressively niggles Keith into action and into clashing with other people on the camp-site. The blind hypocrisy of the couple comes out in scenes where they demand a fellow camper Ray turn off his radio to prevent noise pollution but they think nothing of playing their ghastly folk tunes loudly all the time. Keith's prejudices boil to the surface when this very right-on new age man loudly demands that a couple of Birmingham bikers get back to their tenements. Like so much, the reality that Candice-Marie and Keith believe in is a somewhat superficial one. Likewise, Keith's approach to the holiday is drained of any spontaneity and enjoyment as he witlessly sticks to a schedule for no other reason than he wrote it and he goes on a guided tour without taking anything in, hurriedly walking from number to number.

The film has several scenes that are ridiculously funny such as the 'Zoo Song' and the violent stick fight over the misuse of the country code. But the little details sprinkled throughout provide many moments just as funny. Who, for instance, could forget the Prudence the Cat? All-in all, Nuts in May is a genuine triumph. And one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I could re-watch this tomorrow and laugh myself silly again. One of the greatest comedies ever made.

I do not remember this film at the time it was first shown because at that time I would have only been 10 years old.

I have since become a very big fan of Mike Leigh and being keen to see every thing he has done I bought this film on video fairly recently.

The film is both very good and very funny. It is much better than something like carry-on-camping(although that was good)because it is much more life like. Keith and Candice-Marie are ordinary people on an ordinary camping holiday. I loved the bits where Candice Marie is struggling to keep up with her husband on the walks. I have that problem sometimes, except in our case it is me who wants to go whilst she is dragged along.I would not have recognized her as the same actress who played Beverly in Abigails party(Alison Steadman).In that she was the bossy one whilst in this she is one getting ordered around by her husband.She has been in several Mike Leigh films and I think she is one of his best actresses, in each one her character is so different it could be a completely different person . Keith's character was great, he appears to want his own way all the time and keeps on laying down the law.Whilst I am sure he meant well I can see how he would have driven everyone mad. Ray was good too I could see how embarrassed he was when Keith and Candice Marie made him join in with their singing. Well worth watching.

Although it seems destined to wallow in semi-obscurity forever, for me Nuts In May is right up there with Goodfellas, Jaws and Pulp Fiction as one of the all time masterpieces of cinema. The exploits of Keith, Candice-Marie, Ray, Finger and Honky in a field in Dorset are easily as good as Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta pulling off a diamond heist, or Roy Scheider blowing up a shark. I honestly think this film might have the greatest acting of all time. Keith and Candice-Marie are so real it hurts. I can't think of performances like this anywhere else.

Mike Leigh's deadpan, voyeuristic direction forces the viewer to endure scenes of extreme cringe that no amount of Hollywood A-listers could ever replicate. The scene where Ray is blackmailed into singing a song about zoos is fantastically unbearable to watch, and that is just one highlight of many. The shot of Keith trying to copy Ray's morning workout routine leaves me on the floor every time. It's pointless singling out individual scenes though, the whole thing is gold from start to finish.

Alas, this is also the kind of film at least 85% of people would watch and think "what was all that about. nothing happens". And of course they'd be right, but they'd be so wrong.

One of my favourite-ever movies. Chris from Philadelphia has it SO wrong - but we've come to expect that of our American friends. Subtlety and nuance of performance were never that important...

Anyway, Nuts in May is a joy from start to finish: excruciatingly difficult to watch at times through sheer embarrassment; riotously funny; refreshingly free of gimmickry or faddishness - just a superb script, wonderfully acted, particularly by the leads Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman (Mike Leigh's wife at the time and on of the UK's finest-ever actors).

Do yourself a favour.

We first saw this film about fifteen years ago when we rented it from our local TLA(an excellent video shop in Philly), and have watched it at least ten times since.

We pretty much echo all the previous positive comments about this film.

Suffice to say that every time we hear the name "Ray" we crack up.

Nuts in may is one of the most comic films ever made. There are two scenes in this film that i think could be the funniest thing i`ve ever seen. One is where Keith the main character makes Ray, a man he met on the camping trip, sing a song he wrote with his wife Candice Marie. The other is at the end where Keith starts a fight with a man called finger because he`s lighting fires. All in all it`s a low budget but amazingly funny film with alot of beef.

British director Mike Leigh's sense of humor is sharp enough to make one laugh and cringe simultaneously, and this early BBC production is a perfect case in point. Throughout his career Leigh has always enjoyed taking critical potshots at every level of British society, and his target here is a self-absorbed, politically correct know-it-all and his placed, passive wife, already on vacation from reality, whose clockwork holiday in the English countryside is spoiled by all kinds of distraction. Typical of the director's semi-improvisational methods, events are allowed to unfold without being forced into a straightjacket plot, giving the cast ample room to develop their roles. The characters of Keith and Candice-Marie could almost be mirror images of the more sympathetic Cyril and Shirley from Leigh's popular 'High Hopes', but the film almost seems to be mocking a similar liberal attitude Leigh would champion in the later film: witness the embarrassing moment when Keith forces a reluctant fellow camper to sing one of his monotonous folk tunes.

This is a perfect introduction to the films of Mike Leigh. As with most of his work, there is the mundane, leading to a climax of conflict between the characters, followed by life-changing realisation, where before there was denial and ignorance. It's deceptively bucolic, gripping stuff, highlighted by then wife, Alison Steadman's performance as Candice-Marie, a free-thinking, hippie. You can't decide if she is completely naive, or sincerely rebelling against Keith, her partner (Roger Sloman), a fiercely anal-retentive pedant. Similar patterns in story telling keep surfacing in Leigh's work: Life is Sweet, Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing, Vera Drake and it is always riveting. Where hope ends most of Leigh's stories, however, Keith's future looks less hopeful at the end of this early work.

Well I didn't see this one until the 90's but Mike Leigh never disappoints. Quite literally this is the funniest film I have ever seen and more importantly it stands the test of time. It is still as funny now as the first time I saw it.

You can watch the likes of American Pie and split your sides but you won't remember a single joke. With nuts in May, you will be chuckling at elements of the film for weeks afterwards. This film covers the whole gamut of British comedy - everything from farting in tents to the utter idiocy of the lead, Keith, and his misplaced sense of responsibility.

The worrying thing is that we can all see our own shortfalls in Leigh's characters - that's why sometimes, it's uncomfortable viewing but hilarious.

Mike - if you're reading this - loved Secrets and Lies, Naked, etc. but don't hesitate to do more of this when you get some time! The depth of these characters really puts in a nutshell the differences between British / European films and the Hollywood churn. You can go and watch fantastic movies like Goodfellas and LA Confidential but you never really get under the skins of characters.

A must watch - buy it, take it home and watch it with your Mum and Dad, kids etc.

Fans of Mike Leigh rate his modern social studies which although effective in raising social commentary they can be so dull.

But for a true study of the human condition you can not beat Nuts in May. The "Zoo Song" being a particular highlight, poor Ray is dragged into Keith and Candice-Marie's sing along. Poor Keith struggles with the arrival of the couple from Birmingham and slowly has a meltdown. It is so painful to watch.

Fans of the League of Gentleman I'm sure you can see the origins of Les McQueen in the plasterer of Birmingham, the likeness is uncanny.

All in a long lost classic and the pinnacle of Mike Leigh's early career.