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Meit’s no wonder why Barbara Pym’s sweet and quietly profound novel about four office workers approaching retirement has never been adapted before. Its beauty is closely linked to the rich people it has – Edwin, Letty, Marcia and Norman – who have unknowingly become each other’s secrets, although they insist that they are not really friends, and it is very difficult.
Pym’s book was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1977, and it is fitting that this first installment is based on it. Samantha Harveywhose book Orbital won this award in 2024. Although his depth has inevitably been lost, he proves that he is in safe hands.
This is a lean, smart, no sidebar conversion. Pragmatic widower Edwin (Anthony Calf) is supported by his commitment to church life. Sensitive Letty (Kate Duchêne) is afraid to spend her retirement because her best friend is too romantic. Uptight Marcia (Pooky Quesnel) is swept up in an imaginary relationship with her doctor, barely keeping canned food when she’s not eating enough to function. Norman (Paul Rider) is an idiot, whose recklessness may give The Office’s David Brent a run for his money.
Their quirks are playfully played up by director Dominic Dromgoole, and if he sometimes tries deliberately for laughs, the foursome’s day-to-day grunts remain entertaining. Ironically, their worries about heating their homes and their jobs being replaced by computer technology are also 50 years old. But Ellie Wintour’s clothes of large weaves and excessive sizes help to be rooted in the 1970s, while her appearance evokes their informal office with desks facing each other. When someone has an inner thought to share – which they often do in a story where more is thought than said – Dromgoole makes them stand in the spotlight.
This book marked Pym’s comeback, written after 15 years of being rejected by publishers. It ends with Letty imagining how life is “infinite opportunity” – and it seems that watching these antiheroes take their first steps in sixty years after they were written.
