Catherine Called Birdy
Amazon Prime’s hilarious take on mediaeval England will have you in hysterical historical fits.
Joe Alwyn and Bella Ramsey
It’s been done many times before – the rewriting of history for comic effect. Just think of Danny Kaye in The Court Jester, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride and not forgetting Ben Elton’s Blackadder and Upstart Crow. In their time, every one was a winner. Here we are back in the day, the thirteenth century to be exact, in Stonebridge, a Lincolnshire village peopled by weird inhabitants with peculiar habits, most of which are disgusting.
Catherine or Birdy (Bella Ramsey from Game of Thrones) is a 14-year-old girl, although she's less of a tomboy and more of a real boy. Life is difficult for Birdy (so-called because she has an aviary) as she is part of an unwelcome feudal lifestyle into which she cannot easily fit. She is an independent young woman and won't be bossed by anyone. In the role Bella Ramsey is just perfect – feisty, funny and frequently fearless. Her mother, Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper), is a baby-making machine, while her father, Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott), a penniless spendthrift.
Her best friends are Aelis (Isis Hainsworth) and Perkin, the goat boy (Michael Woolfitt), with whom she spends time rolling around in mud and wrestling with pigs. The only man she finds attractive is her Uncle George (Joe Alwyn), but he’s in love with Aelis, although he has to get engaged to the rich widow Ethelfrida (Sophie Okonedo). When Birdy’s father decides his daughter should get married, he looks for the man with the biggest dowry. Approaching marriageable age Birdy tries to hide the fact by concealing her menstrual rags in the privy, much to the disgust of her maid Morwenna (Lesley Sharp). But then the fun really begins...
Director Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture, HBO’s Girls) has adapted the award-winning young adult novel by Karen Cushman but has omitted some of the serio-comic feminist points in the book, while concentrating on the supposedly farcical aspects of life in England’s Middle Ages. Much of is screamingly funny and none the worst for that and Dunham sustains the comedy throughout. Underneath the surface hilarity, however, the film makes a point about the treatment of women and the dominating ignorance of men and their attitude to the opposite sex, something that survives to this day. In a way it is reminiscent of Tony Richardson and John Osborne’s film treatment of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.
There are some famous faces here in a cast that includes Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Lesley Sharp, Joe Alwyn, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Kaye, Russell Brand and even co-producer Tim Bevan, who all appear to be having a good time. But really the film belongs to Bella Ramsey, who is just terrific. Much like the book, Catherine Called Birdy is obviously aimed at teenagers, although anybody with a feeling for the absurd should enjoy this delightful romp which is both charming and hysterical at one and the same time.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Cast: Bella Ramsey, Billie Piper, Andrew Scott, Lesley Sharp, Joe Alwyn, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Kaye, Dean-Charles Chapman, Isis Hainsworth, Michael Woolfitt, David Bradley, Rita Bernard-Shaw, Jamie Demetriou, Russell Brand, Ralph Ineson, Angus Wright, Jeffery Kissoon, Moya Brady, Tim Bevan.
Dir Lena Dunham, Pro Tim Bevan, Lena Dunham, Eric Fellner and Jo Wallett, Screenplay Lena Dunham based on the book by Karen Cushman, Ph Laurie Rose, Pro Des Kave Quinn, Ed Joe Klotz, Music Carter Burwell, Costumes Julian Day, Sound Jeremy Price, Dialect coach Jamie Matthewman.
Good Thing Going/Working Title-Amazon Prime Video.
108 mins. UK/USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 7 October 2022. Available on Amazon Prime. Cert. 12.