Mrs. Capper's Birthday (1985 TV Movie) User Reviews

sweet, with a beautiful performance

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 8 May 2016]

Mrs. Capper's Birthday is based on a story by Noel Coward. It's about a woman (Patricia Hayes) who was widowed during the war but continues to speak out loud to her husband. Today is her birthday, and she starts off by cleaning the home of a married couple and supporting the lady of the house as she tries to get her lover out the door before her husband comes home.

The husband calls and tells Mrs. Capper that he'll be home in half an hour. Then his wife comes downstairs and pretends that he's upstairs. Finally she asks, "Did I hear the phone? Who was it?" "Mr. Nash," Mrs. Capper said. "He wanted you to know he'll be home in a half hour -- 29 minutes now."

Mrs. Capper lives with an egomaniacal, boisterous woman named Alice (Avis Bunnage) but she holds her own against her just fine. Alice is suspicious that her gentleman caller is after Mrs. Clapper, and he is, but she turns him down.

That evening her daughter and son-in-law take her and Alice to dinner, followed by a pub where a friend of Mrs. Capper's performs. Mrs. Capper herself takes the microphone and sings I'll Be Seeing You, but a brawl ensues and she stops singing.

She's pulled in all directions - her daughter wants her to move in with her and her husband, she has a proposal of marriage, the woman she cleans for adores her and has given her an expensive gift - but in the end, Mrs. Capper wants to be alone with her memories of a marriage that was too short.

Not much to this film, but so well acted and a very sweet story about a day in the life of an old woman.

noel coward story of a lonely old lady

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 30 October 2008]

Part of the seven disk DVD collection of Noel Coward's work from BBC. Not many recognize-able faces in the cast for the U.S. viewers; Hugh Laurie (TV show "House" and British series "Jeeves & Wooster") is Bobby. Our star, Patricia Hayes, is Mrs. Capper, a house-keeper who talks to herself, and is celebrating her birthday. Patricia Hayes was also the old-lady witness who lost her dogs in "Fish Called Wanda", and worked with Benny Hill extensively over the years. Mrs. Capper just wants to relax in her own house and quietly reminisce, but she keeps getting interrupted by friends and neighbors. Not much of a story, really, but its a relaxing, harmless way to spend an hour. Directed by Mike Ockrent, who only directed a few things, and seems to have left us younger than most.

charming short play

[didi-5 · 7/10 · 19 October 2008]

With two great names in playwriting coming together - Jack Rosenthal writing a script from Noel Coward's original story - you'd expect 'Mrs Capper's Birthday' to be a superior piece of writing. And mainly because of Patricia Hayes in the lead role, it is.

Mrs Capper, widowed in the war after only a few years of marriage, lives with an old tart and cleans for a couple in the bright young things set (strange then that this is set in 1972, as they feel a little out of place). It's her birthday and we follow her day as all sorts of friends and family foist their attentions on her - the local tobacconist who wants more than friendship, the bed-hopping couple she dailies for, her fussy daughter and bored son-in-law.

The strong point of this play is Mrs Capper's discussions with long-dead husband Fred, sharing her day, commenting on what's been going on. And a Coward song sneaks in as well - 'I'll Be Seeing You', although interrupted by a modern fist fight over a girl.

Sweet and charming, 'Mrs Capper's Birthday' may be just a bit of fluff but it is fluff which repays the viewer if they stick with it. Inconsequential, then, but good television.

Birthday Gel

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 31 December 2013]

First I'd like if I may, to correct the erroneous point made by one of the two previous reviewers; I'll Be Seeing You, which Mrs Capper performs in the pub, was not, in fact, a Noel Coward song. It was written by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal for the short-lived Broadway musical Right This Way, in 1938, notable as the 'legit' debut of Joe E. Lewis, hitherto best known as a night-club comedian. At best, Mrs. Capper's birthday is a slight piece, which spans more or less most of the day in question, beginning with its subject waking in bed and closing as she retires to bed for the night. In between, she fends off a proposal, spends a couple of hours 'cleaning' for a young married couple, shares a birthday dinner with her daughter, son-in-law and her landlady/friend, and rounds off the evening in a pub. Amongst those lending support to Patricia Hayes as the eponymous Hilda Capper are Max Wall as the suitor, Avis Bunnage as the landlady/friend, Paula Wilcox as the daughter, and Paddy O'Neil as a pub singer and friend. It's all pretty harmless and painful in equal measure.