Britannia Hospital

Britannia Hospital
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLindsay Anderson
Written byDavid Sherwin
Produced byClive Parsons
Davina Belling
StarringLeonard Rossiter
Graham Crowden
Joan Plowright
Jill Bennett
Marsha Hunt
Malcolm McDowell
CinematographyMike Fash
Edited byMichael Ellis
Music byAlan Price
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia-EMI-Warner Distributors[1]
Release date
  • 27 May 1982 (1982-05-27)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.5 million[2] or $4 million[3][4] or £2.5 million[5]
Box office$375,713[6]

Britannia Hospital is a 1982 British black comedy film, directed by Lindsay Anderson, which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society. It was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and Fantasporto.[7]

Britannia Hospital is the final part of Anderson's trilogy of films, written by David Sherwin, that follow the adventures of Mick Travis (portrayed by Malcolm McDowell) as he travels through a strange and sometimes surreal Britain. From his days at boarding school in if.... (1968) to his journey from coffee salesman to film star in O Lucky Man! (1973), Travis's adventures finally come to an end in Britannia Hospital, which sees him as a muckraking reporter investigating the bizarre activities of Professor Millar, played by Graham Crowden, with whom he had had an encounter in O Lucky Man. All three films have characters in common. Some of the characters from if.... that did not turn up in O Lucky Man! return for Britannia Hospital. The film also features Leonard Rossiter, Joan Plowright, Jill Bennett, Marsha Hunt, Fulton Mackay, Vivian Pickles, Richard Griffiths, Arthur Lowe, and Mark Hamill.

The absurdities of human behaviour as we move into the twenty-first century are too extreme—and too dangerous—to permit us the luxury of sentimentalism or tears. But by looking at humanity objectively and without indulgence, we may hope to save it. Laughter can help.

— Lindsay Anderson
  1. ^ "Britannia Hospital (1982)". BBFC. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  2. ^ Walker, Alexander (1985). National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. Harrap. p. 213.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference bedlam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "British Film: Kudos and Question". Marks Welles, Merida. The New York Times. 6 June 1982: A 20.
  5. ^ "British Production 1981". Moses, Antoinette. Sight & Sound; London Vol. 51, Iss. 4, (Autumn 1982): 258.
  6. ^ "Britannia Hospital (1983)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  7. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Britannia Hospital". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 8 June 2009.

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