Nuts In May

After two strong but rather grim projects--BLEAK MOMENTS (1971) and HARD LABOUR (1973), the telefilm NUTS IN MAY showed British viewers that writer-director Mike Leigh had a humorous side as well, one that has been evident ever since. An urban civil servant and his nitwit wife, both sad examples of what happens to hippies when they pass 30, take on the English countryside in a camping vacation; the countryside wins.

Keith Pratt (Roger Sloman) and his wife Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) arrive at a campsite in Dorset, where they plan to spend their vacation, sleeping in a tent and taking hiking trips to see the local scenery. Keith is a control freak who regular...