Billy Liar , Waterhouse’s second novel, catapulted him to fame and success. It became a BAFTA nominated film, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Tom Courtenay and Judy Christie. There was also a play with Albert Finney in the title role and, of course, a television series both here and in the US. When the musical opened in the West End, it starred Michael Crawford and Elaine Paige in her West End debut. But now, it is almost forgotten. Billy is "just about thraiped wi' Stradhoughton" He tells everyone that he is off to London. But when he tries to resign from his job as an undertaker's clerk - a job he is dying to leave of course, there is a complication: the small matter of some calendars he was supposed to post nine months earlier. Like a lazy postmen hiding mail in his shed because he can't be bothered to do his rounds, Billy has stashed them all under his bed and embezzled the postage money. His hopeless attempts at getting rid of the calendars - by trying to flush them down the loo at work, for example - are comical.

Instead, he lied about their safe dispatch and kept the postage money. His aspiration is to become a comedy writer in the capital, a four-hour train journey away. “Are you really going to London,” asks one of his trio of girlfriends, “or just pretending?” The film adaptation is very faithful to the book (although the endings are subtly different) so there were no real plot surprises. In 1960, the novel's author, Keith Waterhouse, co-wrote a three-act stage version with Willis Hall. The action took place on a single set combining the living-room, hallway, and porch of the Fisher household. The first production opened in the West End of London with Albert Finney in the title role. It has since been produced all over the world, and has become a favourite with amateur groups. The play was adapted for the Irish stage as Liam Liar by Hugh Leonard in 1976. [2] So, where do we draw the line? When does a “little white lie” as a way of life become a treatable diagnosis? And, would we be lying if we said it may be too late to care?

Dancing

This simple statement strikes at Billy’s conscience, and summarizes one of the film’s timeless messages. Truth, responsibility and social bonds are not easily abandoned or forgotten – nor should they be. Promises, such as a marriage engagement (of which Billy has several), are meant to be kept, not played at and discarded; if one neglects them in pursuit of an illusory notion of “freedom,” the only result is pain and anguish for all concerned. Universal Themes

One of the film’s deliberate themes is frustration (inextricably linked with its setting). While the primary manifestations of this are obvious, the director subtly invites us to speculate further; e.g. on the unspoken effect of the death of Billy’s sister, or his father’s thwarted attempt to join the army. This is not, therefore, the story of a boy pursuing his dreams. Approaching Billy Liar with this expectation will lead to disappointment and a failure to appreciate the dilemma it explores (see Peter Bradshaw’s dismissive review in The Guardian).And there is enough of a cliffhanger to keep you wanting to know: will Billy go to London (and leave his troubles and his two-and-a-half fiancees behind) or will he stay to face the music?

Most of all I love the brilliantly realistic description of a northern working class family of the time, and it is riddled with those wonderfully colourful expressions that punctuated my own childhood, like:-

A wander

Of course, like all lazy sods, what he wants to be is a scriptwriter. And this dream is, supposedly, on the verge of being fulfilled - comedian Danny Boon has written to Billy offering him a job down in London. Yeah, right. The other one's got bells on Billy! In terms of genre, the film is a product of its time. A rare example of “British New Wave,” (equivalent to the French Nouvelle Vague), it shares in the “kitchen sink realism” of productions that placed domestic life center stage: Grim-looking Brits spending their off-hours in grimy pubs became increasingly prominent, as did regional accents. The popular soap Coronation Street is an enduring example of this genre. The Old vs the New

When I first saw the film in 1961 I was also intrigued by the glimpse it offered of a strange new world - the North of England! How unusual is Massimine’s allergy to the truth? Dr Curtis and Dr Hart drew on research conducted in 2010 to calculate how many Americans habitually lie. It showed 60% said they told no lies in the previous 24 hours. On average, people told 1.65 lies (half-truths?) in the previous 24 hours except for 5.3% of the population who just couldn’t stop. They told an average of 15 lies a day. Out of this group, the two doctors have put together a psychological profile, a pathology they want included in the DSMMM.Grouped with the Angry Young Men of British letters, who came to prominence in the late 50s and early 60s, Waterhouse's most famous creation is less angry with the status quo of post-war Britain than Arthur Seaton and Jimmy Porter, instead finding an escape from his frustrations by living in a dream world half of the time. Find sources: "Billy Liar"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) So this Billy is not particularly likable. His imaginary friend Oscar only seems to be there because Billy has to have an imagination, not because he's funny, which he isn't.