Compare and contrast the film adaptation of 'Billy Liar' with the stage play. Discuss the ways in which they differ and how each affects the audience.

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                Mohammad Khalid 4LE

Twentieth century drama GCSE coursework

Compare and contrast the film adaptation of ‘Billy Liar’ with the stage play. Discuss the ways in which they differ and how each affects the audience.

The play, Billy Liar was written in the early 1960s by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse. The play was set in Northern England in places like Manchester and Sheffield. The story is about a teenager, Billy Fisher who is a lonely and discontented with life. He does not have many friends and imagines being real high class and having a luxurious life. He is always getting trouble for causing mischief and telling lies. Billy lives with his parents, Alice and Geoffrey Fisher and his grandma Florence. He has three girlfriends, Liz, Barbara and Rita, two of whom he is engaged to. Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse directed both the play and the film. The play and the film are quite similar, but in the film there are a few additional characters and scenes. In the play there is a lot more dialogue than action and also it is set in the same place (lounge) whereas in the film there is a lot of talking and action. The film is not set in the same place but instead it follows the characters. The majority of the audience would probably prefer to watch the play as a film instead of watching it in a theatre because in the film there would be more special effects and it can be watched in a big screen. There are a lot of differences between the film and the play script and the aim of this essay is to see what the differences are between the play script and the film.

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In the opening, the play script and the film are quite different. In the play script Florence is talking to herself in the beginning about her appointment with Dr. Blakemore. Alice goes upstairs to call Billy and tell him to get ready. This happens in the film but, in the film they show Billy’s bedroom and they also show his fantasy scene whereas in the play script it only tells us that Billy’s mother is calling him down to get ready. Alice and Florence are talking about Dr. Blakemore and then Geoffrey joins in. In the film and in ...

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