To say this is perfect is far-fetched...yes...but you must watch this one to decide for yourself.

I first saw this on our local Miami public TV station as a filler for late night openings between episodes of this and that. I only caught a part of it the first time. Then, to my surprise, they showed it again. This time I got to see the whole thing. I was perplexed but thoroughly entertained.

I caught a few of its funny lines. The next time, a friend and I started repeating the lines as they came. The fourth time, they became part of our daily vernacular. The English accents got to us. We started to imitate those wonderful sounds as only the English can conjure. So delicious did our encounters with this short become that it became high camp for us and we would laugh even before the laughs and the quirks of the characters returned to our ears each time.

Alison Steadman and David Thewlis were positively perfect and acted so unassumingly to the camp lines which they had to deliver. I bet there were lots of takes in this one.

All in all...a nice short and fun, if not offbeat ride into the wonderful mind of Mike Leigh!