Girl Stroke Boy

A middle-aged couple, author Letty and school teacher George, worry if their son Laurie will ever get married. Laurie brings home his new girlfriend Jo, the androgynous child of a West Indian politician, whose gender and sex Letty begins to question. ==Cast==

• Joan Greenwood as Lettice Mason • Michael Hordern as George Mason • Clive Francis as Laurie • Peter Straker as Jo Delaney • Patricia Routledge as Pamela Hovendon • Peter Bull as Peter Hovendon • Rudolph Walker as Mr Delaney • Diana Hoddinott as wife / husband • Elisabeth Welch as Mrs Delaney ==Girlfriend==

The film was based on the play Girlfriend. The cast included Margaret Leighton, John Standing (Lorn), Alan MacNaughton (George), and Michel Des Barres and was directed by Vivian Matalon. It was by first time author, school teacher David Percival. It opened on 17 February 1970. The Daily Telegraph called it "an equivocal comedy balanced halfway between a wink and a snigger." The Observer said "it dragged the you-can't-tell-them-apart-in-those-clothes joke over a lamentable evening in which you were asked to believe no one on stage could notice the fiance of title's Adam's apple. The most maddening thing about it was the waste" of the cast and the author's talent whose "lines were fine. They only needed a play." ==Production==

The play had flopped but Ned Sherrin bought the film rights. The movie version was shot over two weeks at a cost of £50,000 (the low cost because fees were deferred). The film was sold to John Daly of Hemdale. ==Reception==

Producer Ned Sherrin said the film previewed well but received poor reviews and minimal box office. However he says the film's costs were recovered through a television sale. Variety called it "a light, would-be sophisticated comedy" where "Young and old alike could find its single uni-sex joke tedious and sometimes unpleasant... The film, despite added exteriors, is stagy in the extreme." The Evening Standard said "it might have been called "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?"... a more tedious, ill-made, appallingly-acted and directed piece of mindlessness it would be difficult to discover in a decade of filmgoing." Peter Straker claimed "the reviewers were just trying to make it into a vast racial transvestite mountain. It would have been alright if they had just stuck to the movie's failings as a comedy. And there were many, which I think was the fault of the director." Filmink argued "the movie has one joke – the parents can’t figure it out – which is dragged out far, far too long and the script badly needs another complication, but Girl Stroke Boy is remarkably progressive in its depiction of sexuality...the gay couple are shown in a very positive light as having a clearly loving and supportive relationship." ==References==