Denis Gifford (editor) British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film, Volume 2, 1895-1994, p. 960, at Google Books The film was originally intended for television, but its producer Kenith Trodd upgraded his original plan to a cinema feature. [6] The original working title for the film was "Falling Man". Playwright Simon Gray was commissioned to write the screenplay, and Pat O'Connor chosen to direct. In contrast to the book, which is narrated as a recollection by Birkin as an old man, the film is set entirely in the 1920s, except for a brief moment towards the end. In initial drafts of the screenplay, Gray had included a narrator, but O'Connor felt this was not the correct way to present the story: a b "Old way of being church". Church Times. No.7546. 26 October 2007. p.20. ISSN 0009-658X . Retrieved 7 June 2014.

A Month in the Country online - BFI Player Watch A Month in the Country online - BFI Player

The film was shot during the summer of 1986 and featured an original score by Howard Blake. The film has been neglected since its 1987 cinema release and it was only in 2004 that an original 35 mm film print was discovered, due to the intervention of a fan. [3] Plot [ edit ]The independent-minded quarterly magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it's more like having a well-read friend than a subscription to a literary review. Carr was born in Thirsk Junction, Carlton Miniott, Yorkshire, into a Wesleyan Methodist family. His father Joseph, the eleventh son of a farmer, went to work for the railways, eventually becoming a station master for the North Eastern Railway. Carr was given the same Christian name as his father and the middle name Lloyd, after David Lloyd George, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. He adopted the names Jim and James in adulthood. His brother Raymond, who was also a station master, called him Lloyd.

A literary holiday – JL Carr’s A Month in the Country A literary holiday – JL Carr’s A Month in the Country

a b c Filming information Archived 14 April 2013 at archive.today at amitc.org. Retrieved 22 July 2008 A Month in the Country begins with Tom Birkin going to Oxgodby after the war. Birkin settles in his not-so-glamorous temporary home to restore a newly emerged medieval work of art in this lush and charming Yorkshire village. Birkin, who has left behind a marriage and the horror of war, explores the beauties of the countryside while revealing the medieval picture. He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the parish church of St Faith at Newton in the Willows, which had been vandalised and was threatened with redundancy. Carr came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice and the higher church authorities in his campaign. The building was saved, but redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre. In particular, he forms a close friendship with archaeologist James Moon, another war veteran, who like Birkin has been emotionally scarred. Moon is employed in the village under the same bequest, working to uncover a mysterious lost grave, but is more interested in discovering the remains of an earlier Saxon church building in the field next to the churchyard.

It’s 1920, at the start of the summer, and Tom Birkin has just arrived in “enemy country”, otherwise known as the north of England. He’s an expert in medieval church frescoes and has been hired according to the will of a recently deceased estate owner to spend a month restoring a 14th-century painting discovered under limewash in a Yorkshire village church. Recently separated from his wife, Birkin is a veteran of the war, betrayed by a twitch on the left side of his face. Howard Blake recalls: "I went to a viewing and saw that the film was very profound, with a serious anti-war theme, but a certain amount of 'found' choral music had already been laid in by the editors...I explained that I loved the film and I thought the choral/orchestral music worked brilliantly but it was very big and rich and I felt a score would have to emerge from it and be very pure and expressive and quite small — and that I could only hear this in my head as done by strings only." [13]