Richard E Grant’s renaissance is a pleasure to watch – and it all began with Withnail and I

Planning to go away this Christmas? It is worth revisiting this top-shelf comedy about two boozy would-be actors who go on holiday by mistake

If you like what Richard E Grant is doing now – in series such as The Franchise and films like Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Saltburn – you really should see where it all began: the 1987 flop turned cult classic Withnail and I. Grant delivers a tour de force comedic performance as an alcoholic out-of-work actor living with his best mate in a squalid London flat at the tail end of 1969 who goes on a rural holiday by mistake.

It’s funnier than it sounds. In fact, Withnail and I is top-shelf comedy, with some of the finest lines and line readings available to humanity. (A personal favourite: “This place has become impossible. Perpetual rain, freezing cold and now a madman on the prowl outside with eels.”)

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