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Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese, Penelope Wilton, Alison Steadman, Stephen Moore and Sharon Maiden. It was directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film was co-produced by Moment Films and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. The music in the film was composed by George Fenton.

Michael Frayn's screenplay has a different opening, involving illuminated digits on a clock radio, Cleese waking up when the alarm goes off and Cleese seen naked and wet in the shower ("a sight few of us expected to see in our lifetime").

For his performance in the film, Cleese won the 1987 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Plot[link]

The story describes the efforts of Brian Stimpson (Cleese), the headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, to travel to an annual Headmasters' Conference. Having been habitually late and disorganised as a young man, Stimpson has grown up to become fastidiously punctual, and his school runs "like clockwork". He is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to be elected to chair a Headmaster's Conference, that honour usually being reserved for headmasters of the more prestigious private schools. After preparing and rehearsing his speech, he boards the wrong train on his way to the conference, loses the text of the speech, and suffers a series of setbacks as he tries to reach the conference.

Filming locations[link]

The actual locations used did not reflect the supposed setting at that time. Most urban scenes were shot in the West Midlands and Humberside while rural scenes were largely shot in Shropshire.^[1]

The school used in the beginning of the film is Menzies High School, in West Bromwich (West Midlands).

King Edward's School, a private boys' day school and the east entrance to the University of Birmingham, both in Edgbaston, Birmingham, were also used as filming locations, as was Grimsby's Scartho Road Hospital (now called Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital).

The entrance to the on-screen hospital (in which the car Cleese and others are seen driving out of) is actually the entrance to the Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby. Most of the rural scenes, such as where Brian meets Pat at the three phone boxes, were filmed in Shropshire, notably around Much Wenlock. The character of Mr Stimpson, played by Cleese, was based on a real headmaster at his daughter's school.

A scene is filmed on the A165 (Ganstead Lane) where Cleese runs his student's car into the police car. Longhill can be seen behind much of this scene.

The A491 in and around the Hagley/Clent area was used to film certain scenes such as the breakdown. The red telephone box that still remains in Hagley (Brake Lane) was used numerous times from different angles.

The railway station scene was filmed at Hull Paragon Station (now Hull Paragon Interchange). The petrol station was also in Hull, on Cottingham Road (B1233).^[2] The original Shell petrol station no longer exists, with a McDonald’s restaurant now on the site.

Cast[link]

• John Cleese - Brian Stimpson
• Penelope Wilton - Pat
• Alison Steadman - Gwenda Stimpson
• Stephen Moore - Mr. Jolly
• Sharon Maiden - Laura Wisely

References[link]

1. ^ Clockwise Locations' at Gloucestershire On Screen
2. ^ [1], Filming locations for Clockwise, IMDB.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Clockwise

• Clockwise at the Internet Movie Database
• Clockwise at AllRovi