I have just finished viewing A Kind of Loving (DVD) and have been inspired to comment here at IMDb. What a touching film with real honesty.

A real intimate portrait of life in the early 60s in England. Displaying the kind of innocence of that time which we now look back on and wryly smile.

But here we have an truth which can only be gained by a cross-section of life at that time. The scenes of the factory work environment, catching public transport, the pubs, even the intimacies of home life.

I'm so glad it was filmed in B&W as it emphasized too well the drear lives that people at that time were enduring. (English weather ... gotta love it.) The whole film seemed to be a spiraling downwards right to the end, until there was that tiny (tiny!) upturn at the end ... so things may not be that bad after all? Personally I reckon the recover of this doomed relationship would be short-lived.

Thora Hird ... what can I say. The only comparable mother in law I can remember was Ethel Merman in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. 10 out of 10 Thora.

And Alan Bates ... what a wonderful performance. Restrained yet so powerful, in a role that would have been so hard to display such strength.

Hire it, buy it ... but make sure you get to see it.