A Taste of Honey (1961)

Select media
interviews
- Q&A with Rita Tushingham for A Taste of Honey

Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way. Hard copies of some images can be bought via the BFI Printstore and the complete collection can be accessed for commercial reuse via BFI Stills.

Film details

Featuring

Rita Tushingham Dora Bryan Murray Melvin
Director

Tony Richardson
Country

United Kingdom
Year

1961
Genre

Drama
Type

Film
Category

Fiction

Introduction

“Dora Bryan gives an uproarious turn as Jo’s impossible mam, with Robert Stephens as the shabby suitor. Tushingham’s performance and lovely, open face are still a tonic.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 2002

Resilient working-class heroine Jo flees her uncaring single mother and gets pregnant by a black sailor. She seeks solace from another social outsider, a meek gay textile student. A Taste of Honey was adapted by Shelagh Delaney from her first play, written while she was still in her teens.

If the then-daring subject matter suggests an issue-led drama urging moral tolerance, director Tony Richardson’s treatment is more a matter of poetic realism, highlighting sensitive changes of mood and emotion against a backdrop of grimly authentic Salford locations. Social attitudes may have moved on since 1961, but wide-eyed Rita Tushingham’s affecting central performance remains a delight.

A sensation by the age of 21, playwright Shelagh Delaney went on to have a fitful screenwriting career, notable scripts including Charlie Bubbles (1967) and Dance with a Stranger (1985).