Brief Encounter

Richard Dyer revisits this restrained romance to puzzle out its enduring appeal.

"There'll come a time in the future when I shan't mind about this any more, when I can look back and say quite peacefully and cheerfully how silly I was. But no, no, I don't want that time to come ever. I want to remember every minute, always, always to the end of my days.”

The staying power of Brief Encounter is a strange and marvellous thing. How is it that a film which did middling box-office on its release after the war, and which at first glance now might look impossibly dated and class-bound, can still be capturing imaginations so consistently?

Work like every minute, always and Kneehigh’s swoonsome stage adaptation enable us to look at it afresh, but the urge to reinterpret Brief Encounter is not a new one. Back in the 70s film academic Richard Dyer and his friend Malcolm had plans to re-enact the entire film in the café at Birmingham New Street. We’ve invited Richard back, not to recite Celia Johnson’s lines but to talk about the role the film has played in his life and teaching and to explore why this vision of English restraint remains so seductive.