Wedding Belles (2007) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Philip John

Writers:

Dean Cavanagh (written by)
Irvine Welsh (written by)

Release Date:

29 March 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A darkly humorous look at the lives and loves of four modern women, each with their own remarkable, intriguing and often tragic stories.

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Michelle Gomez	...	Amanda
Shirley Henderson	...	Kelly
Shauna Macdonald	...	Rhona
Kathleen McDermott	...	Shaz
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Juliet Cadzow	...	Kelly's Ma
Scott Cleverdon	...	Kevin
Brendan Coyle	...	Priest
Michael Fassbender	...	Barney
Niall Greig Fulton	...	Muffy
Sean Harris	...	Adrian Collins
Ryan Hendrick	...	The Postman
Paul Ireland	...	Spud
Miles Jupp	...	Male Host
Jonny Owen	...	Joshua (as Jonathan Lewis Owen)
Graeme Rooney	...	Nurse Anderson
Jamie Sives	...	Gordon
Irvine Welsh

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:18

Filming Locations:

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Company:

Junction Films

Quotes:

Kelly: I never got the chance to do it to you when you was alive, so this'll have to do.

British TV worthy of HBO

Funny, sad, sexy and scathing. Quite simply an amazing achievement. After being subjected to second rate pedestrian period drama's and lacklustre so called "contemporary" drivel from British TV over the last few years, "Wedding Belles" shot out of the left field and gave me hope in the future of UK broadcasting.

Besides the beautiful photography, the rip roaring soundtrack, the "not an ounce of fat" editing and of course the fantastic chemistry of the cast, here was a script that nailed its mission statement on the mast from the get-go. It went where asbestos booted angels fear to tread.

The whole film felt and looked "authored", something we very rarely - if ever- see from UK productions nowadays. Dean Cavanagh and Irvine Welsh were obviously left to really take their imaginations into overdrive. What we ended up with was "hyper reality" but reality all the same. For all the shocking scenes they never once took us so far away from a veracity.

Being an exiled American I did have a problem understanding the accents and watched with subtitles. This didn't detract from the sheer joy it, in fact, imagining the subtitlers translating it just added to the humour for me.

I watch most of my TV on boxsets and I'd love to see a season of "Wedding Belles". It made me want to visit Edinburgh week in week out and catch up with these larger than life characters.

Truly an outstanding piece of TV worthy of awards.