Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Directed by	Alan Clarke
Screenplay by	Andrea Dunbar
Based on	Rita, Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar The Arbour by Andrea Dunbar
Produced by	Oscar Lewenstein Sanford Lieberson
Starring	Michelle Holmes Siobhan Finneran George Costigan Lesley Sharp
Cinematography
Edited by
Music by	Michael Kamen
Distributed by	Channel 4
Release date	1987
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£993,000[1]

Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a 1987 British comedy film directed by Alan Clarke, set in Bradford, West Yorkshire about two teenaged schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man.^[2] It was adapted by Andrea Dunbar, based on two of her stage plays; Rita Sue and Bob Too (1982) and The Arbour (1980),^[3] which was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London. The strapline of the film was: "Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down."^[3]

Plot[]

Rita and Sue are two teenage girls in their final year of school who live on a run down council estate in Bradford. To earn some money, they babysit for Bob and Michelle (Lesley Sharp), a better-off couple who live in a detached house in a nicer part of town. When the couple return later, Michelle pays the girls and tells Bob to give them a lift home. Bob, however, drives them to an out of the way place to have sex with each of them in the back of his car. They nonchalantly agree, and he and the girls plan to make it a regular thing. By the time they're finished, it's 2 am.

Sue gets a part-time job at a local taxi firm, and meets Aslam (Kulvinder Ghir), a Pakistani boy who drives for the firm. He and another driver make a bet on who can get her into bed first. Sue rebuffs them. At school, Bob shows up at Rita and Sue's PE tennis class to take them for sex. Rita manages to get permission from the teacher to use the toilet (a ruse to see Bob); but Sue is denied and told to get back to the class. She takes her anger out on another student whilst Bob and Rita have sex.

Later, Michelle finds a packet of condoms in Bob's trousers whilst ironing them and they argue. During the argument, it is revealed that Michelle is reluctant to have sex, which frustrates Bob. It also turns out that Bob previously had an affair, discovered when Michelle found his mistress's bracelet in their bed; the mistress had also been their babysitter. Michelle goes upstairs to get ready for their planned night out, for which Rita and Sue are again babysitting. Bob warns the girls that Michelle is suspicious and will ask them questions and try to trick them. They convince Michelle that Bob isn't sleeping with either of them.

After their night out, Bob and Michelle start arguing again, this time in front of Rita and Sue who desperately try not to laugh. Michelle takes her anger out on the girls, then storms off to bed. Rita and Sue make their own way home, unhappy that Bob can't take them in his car and have sex with them again. That night, Michelle decides to let Bob have sex with her to stop him going off with other women, but it goes badly.

The next day, on a school trip, Sue gets into a fight with a classmate who calls her a "slag" because she is rumoured to be seeing a married man. Later, Rita and Sue skip school to go and meet Bob, hoping to make up for the previous night, but Bob can't get an erection, embarrassing himself and leaving Rita and Sue unsatisfied. He takes them out to a club where Michelle's best friend, Mavis spots Bob with the girls. Bob warns the girls that Mavis will surely tell Michelle she saw them together.

The next morning, Mavis rushes around to tell Michelle, and Michelle storms over to Rita's house in Mavis's car. Michelle drags Rita out of her house and into Mavis's car, and takes her to Sue's flat to confront them both, with Bob now in tow. Michelle, Bob, Rita, Sue, and Sue's parents have a big argument in front of all the neighbours, who are all having a good laugh over the spectacle. Michelle blames the girls for being slutty, but Sue retorts that the reason Bob cheats on her is because she doesn't have enough sex with him. Michelle turns on Bob, goes home, ransacks the house, and she and their children leave in a taxi, never to return.

The next day, Sue goes to Rita's house to walk to school together. Rita tells her that she is no longer going to school, because she is pregnant with Bob's child and they are moving in together. When Bob arrives to take her away, Sue is enraged and tells them both to get lost.

Sue dates Aslam as a rebound to get over Bob. They go to the cinema, and then off to a grassy hillside spot where they start kissing. Afterwards they go to Sue's flat where Aslam meets her parents. Her father comes home from the pub drunk, and shouts racist comments at Aslam, causing Sue to leave home and move in with Aslam and his sister.

Months later, Sue finds out that Rita has miscarried, and visits her in the hospital. On the way out, Bob approaches Sue and invites her for another escapade. Sue refuses, saying she's staying faithful to Aslam, whom she's now living with. After Bob drops Sue off at her house, Aslam attacks Sue, thinking that she was out having sex with Bob.

Rita goes to find Sue, who is being attacked by Aslam. Rita kicks him in the knees, and then Sue kicks him in his groin, disabling him enough for both to escape. They go to Bob's house, where Rita tends to Sue's wounds, and Aslam shows up at Bob's door. They refuse to let him in, but Aslam tries to find a way to break in, all the while trying to convince Sue to come back to him, threatening suicide if she doesn't come back. The situation is interrupted by the arrival of the police, having been called by a neighbour. Aslam then runs off with the police in pursuit.

When Bob returns home, Rita tells him that she is letting Sue move in with them. They go upstairs and Bob goes to get a bath. When he goes into the bedroom he finds both girls semi-naked in his bed and he dives onto the bed to join them.

Cast[]

Filming locations[]

Some of the filming locations around West Yorkshire include:^[4]

• Buttershaw – Rita's house; Sue's flat; the school; The Beacon pub on Reevy Road West from the very first scene - All of these have now been demolished except the Beacon pub that still stands (although this is due to be demolished soon, as of October 2019).
• Baildon – Bob's house (Bramham Drive); Moorland scenes.
• Bradford – Aslam's house (Alexandra Street); Luna Radio Kars (Leeds Road).
• Haworth – The school trip to the Bronte Parsonage.
• .
• in Shipley

Reception[]

The film gained a mostly positive reception from critics.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars, and having watched it twice noted that some audiences were uneasy at the mixed tone of this sometimes depressing, sometimes saucy comedy.^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at IMDb
• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at AllMovie
• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rita, Sue and Bob Too at Box Office Mojo
• British Film Institute Screen Online