Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War

Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War
Original cinema poster
Directed by	Ian Sharp
Screenplay by	Malcolm Stone
Based on	Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War
Produced by	Andy Birmingham
Starring	Pauline Collins John Alderton Peter Capaldi
Cinematography	Sue Gibson
Edited by	Gerry Hambling
Music by	Alan Lisk
Production company	Evolution Films Ltd
Distributed by	Arrow Film Distributors
Release dates	5 June 2002 (2002-06-05) (IFE) 25 June 2002 (2002-06-25) (MIFF) 31 January 2003 (2003-01-31) (UK & IRL)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War is a 2002 British comedy-drama film, directed by Ian Sharp and starring Pauline Collins, John Alderton and Peter Capaldi. It is based on a 1993 novel with the same name by author and conspiracy theorist Vernon Coleman.

It is the story about a woman, Thelma Caldicot, who is coerced by her manipulative son Derek and daughter-in-law to move into a run-down nursing home, owned by Derek's employer, after the death of her bullying husband. Derek also gets her to sign over her house to him. However, she doesn't like it at the nursing home and shows her frustration. After having been medicated by the staff to stay calm, she finally incites her fellow inmates to revolt.

The film premiered in June 2002 at the International Filmfest Emden,^[1] where it came second in the competition for the Bernhard Wicki Prize.^[2] A few weeks later, it participated in the Moscow International Film Festival.^[3] The film had its first wide cinema release in United Kingdom and Ireland, where it opened on 31 January 2003.^[3]

Cast

• Pauline Collins as Thelma Caldicot
• Terence Rigby as Henry Caldicot
• Peter Capaldi as Derek
• Anna Wilson-Jones as Veronica
• Gwenllian Davies as Audrey
• Sheila Reid as Joyce
• Frank Mills as Leslie
• Julie Wilson Nimmo as Nurse Knight
• Frank Middlemass as Bernard
• John Alderton as Hawksmoor
• Isla Blair as Matron
• Angela Bruce as Gina
• Paul Freeman as Jenkins
• Martin Jarvis as JB
• Tony Robinson as Nick Reid
• Camille Coduri as Jackie Jones, a news journalist
• Jamie Martin as Boy PC
• Amanda Haberland as Girl PC

Reception

BBC Films awarded the film a 1 star review, reporting that the film was 'Lacking in laughs and light on radical zeal, this is the kind of unambitious British cinema that should have been pensioned off a long time ago.'^[4]

References

1. IMDb: Emden International Film Festival 2002 Retrieved 2013-02-02
2. Filmfest Emden: Preisträger Bernhard Wicki Preis 2002 Archived 2016-01-15 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2013-02-02
3. IMDb: Release info - Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War Retrieved 2013-02-02
4. "BBC - Films - review - Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2021.

External links

• Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War at IMDb
• Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War at the British Film Institute^{[better source needed]}
• Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War at the British Board of Film Classification