Playing potentially gamy or camp material straighter than expected yet never missing a comic beat, Terry Jones’ first non-Python feature as director shows off his skill with actors. David Leland’s original screenplay dramatizes the life of real-life English madam Cynthia Payne, who ran a brothel catering to suburbanites; he and Julie Walters, as the fictionalized Christine, earned BAFTA Award nominations.

Print courtesy of the British Film Institute