Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a British film directed by Alan Clarke about two Yorkshire schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man. It is adapted by Andrea Dunbar from her 1982 stage play of the same name and a 1980 play of hers, "The Arbor". Having been forgotten for many years after its release, it has now been shown by Channel 4 for the last few years around New Year. It was released on D.V.D. in 2003, and has become a cult film. The Sun (newspaper) featured it as the first in its series of adult films on Monday, 23 October 2006. See also Alan Clark, Allan Clarke. ... Michelle Holmes (born Corinne Michelle Cunliffe, 1 January 1967 in Rochdale, Lancashire) is an English actress who has appeared in several television serials. ... Lesley Sharp (born in 1964 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is a British actress. ... Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... See also Alan Clark, Allan Clarke. ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Cult film is a colloquial term for a film that has accrued a devoted group of fans. ... The Sun is a tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland with the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at 3,154,881 copies daily in early 2006 [1], (compared to USA Today, the best-selling US newspaper... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The film was released at the same time that Bradford was trying to remodel its image, and it has been blamed for preventing an improvement in the media image of the city. Many local residents, including members of Dunbar's family, resented the film [1]. In May 1987, a gathering of residents outside of Dunbar's house demanded a discussion over her portrayal of the estate[2]. However, it is now thought of warmly by many Buttershaw residents as their area's claim to fame.

Plot

Two 15-year old girls from a housing estate in Bradford babysit for a relatively affluent couple. They start having an affair with the married man, who seduces them in his car on the moors outside Bradford. When Bob develops a preference for Rita, the two girls fall out. Sue then falls for Aslam - a colleague from a taxi firm that she works for. Statistics Population: 293,717 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SE165325 Administration Metropolitan borough: City of Bradford Metropolitan county: West Yorkshire Region: Yorkshire and the Humber Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: West Yorkshire Historic county: Yorkshire (West Riding) Services Police force: West Yorkshire Fire and rescue...

Social comment

Although the film has many comedic elements, it is a comment upon Thatcher's Britain. The run-down estates are covered in graffiti, and Bob ends up unemployed in the play [3] (there is no evidence that Bob is unemployed at the end of the film). Issues covered in the film include racism, domestic violence, alcoholism, unemployment and cynical manipulation of state benefits. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. ... Graffiti is the unofficial application of graphics on publicly viewable surfaces. ...

Trivia

• The film contains one of the most blatant plot inconsistencies in the history of cinema. ^{[citation needed]} Towards the start of the film, Sue is shown to work at a taxi firm, and it is here where she first meets Aslam. Later on, when she takes Aslam to her house and is having a discussion with her parents, her parents berate her for not having a job or making any effort to get one. Maybe she was referring to a full time job as she is seen earlier in the film as a school girl with a part time job.
• Maureen Long, who had a non-speaking role as Rita's mother in the film, survived an attack by the Yorkshire Ripper.[4]
• The blocks of flats in the area where Sue's family live in the film have now all been demolished.
• Although the film is set in Bradford, neither Rita nor Sue speak with a Bradford accent. The actresses came from Oldham and Rochdale respectively, and speak with accents from these areas. Bob speaks with a Yorkshire accent.

Peter Sutcliffe (born June 2, 1946), infamous as the Yorkshire Ripper, was convicted in 1981 of the murders of thirteen women and attacks on seven more from 1975 to 1980. ...

External links

• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at the Internet Movie Database
• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at Rotten Tomatoes
• DVD Times review
• Investigating the authority of the literary text in critical debate - academic essay discussing auteurism.
• British Film Institute Screen Online