''The Perfect Match'' is a British
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
television film written by
Mike Bullen
Michael J. Bullen (born 13 January 1960) is an English screenwriter. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands of England, attending the Solihull School and later Magdalene College, Cambridge. He left with a degree in history of art and became a ra ...
and directed by
Nick Hurran
Nick Hurran (born 1959) is a British film and television director. His 1998 film ''Girls' Night'' was entered into the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.
Hurran is married to a television producer, Michele Buck, with whom he has two child ...
. It stars
Saskia Reeves and
Con O'Neill as Bridget and Phil, a couple whose marriage proposal is broadcast to football fans. It was first broadcast on the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network on 6 September 1995. The programme was not well received by critics but it was enough of a success for producers
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
to ask Bullen for further ideas, leading to the commissioning of the long-running television series ''
Cold Feet
Cold feet is a phrase that refers to a person not going through with an action, particularly one which requires long term commitment, due to fear, uncertainty, and doubt. A person is said to be "getting cold feet" when, after previously committin ...
''.
Plot
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
supporter Phil (
Con O'Neill) proposes to his girlfriend Bridget (
Saskia Reeves) on the big screen at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
during the
FA Cup Final. They soon become minor national celebrities, attracting the attention of the tabloid newspaper ''
The Sun'' and television presenter
Keith Chegwin. The public frenzy leads Bridget to decide not to marry Phil. The two eventually reconcile and marry out of the public eye.
Production
Believing that there was nothing on British television for people in his age group that was not a soap opera or a costume drama, screenwriter
Mike Bullen
Michael J. Bullen (born 13 January 1960) is an English screenwriter. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands of England, attending the Solihull School and later Magdalene College, Cambridge. He left with a degree in history of art and became a ra ...
wrote the script for ''The Perfect Match''. He secured an agent, who managed to sell the script
on spec
''On Spec'' is a digest-sized, perfect-bound, Canadian quarterly magazine publishing stories and poetry in science fiction, fantasy, and allied genres broadly grouped under the "speculative fiction" umbrella.
History and profile
Based in Edmon ...
to
Andy Harries, controller of comedy at
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
.
[Strenske, Bettina (September 1997).]
Golden Rose of Montreux for Mike Bullen
. London Screenwriters' Workshop. Retrieved on 17 July 2008. Archived fro
on 13 February 1998. Harries described the writing as "impressive—cleverly constructed dialogue, very funny, well observed"
[Carter, Meg (9 November 1998).]
. ''The Independent'' (Independent News & Media): p. 18 (features section). and commissioned it as part of his drive to move away from making traditional-style
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
s.
[ Bullen described the moment he walked onto the set of ''The Perfect Match'' as "gobsmacking €¦wandering around a room which had previously only existed in my head".][
Filming took place at Wembley Stadium during the ]1995 FA Cup Final
The 1995 FA Cup Final was a football match played at Wembley Stadium in London on 20 May 1995 to determine the winner of the 1994–95 FA Cup. The 50th FA Cup Final to be played at Wembley since the Second World War, it was contested by Everton ...
between Everton and Manchester United.[Jeffries, Stuart (7 September 1995). "Television: Red card for foul play". ''The Guardian'' (Guardian Newspapers): p. 32.]
Reception
''The Perfect Match'' was broadcast on the ITV network on 6 September 1995.
Jaci Stephen Jaci may refer to the following places:
* Acireale (Sicilian: ''Jaciriali'', locally shortened to Jaci), Sicily, Italy
* Jaci (river), in Sicilily, Italy
* Jaci, São Paulo, Brazil
See also
* Jasy Jatere {{no footnotes, date=October 2016
Jasy Jat ...
in the ''Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' wrote "The Perfect Match didn't quite come off. The idea was good enough, but the writing was too cliche-ridden to do justice to it. The interfering mother is a well-known comic figure, and Mike Bullen's script added nothing to the caricature to make a unique character. The tabloid journalist was also a cliche €¦The romantic lines could have come straight out of Mills And Boon €¦It was watchable enough, and there were lovely performances from the central characters. Tighter script editing, however, could have turned a good drama into an outstanding one."
''The Perfect Match'' also screened at the 1995 Cologne Film Festival
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
, where it was a prizewinner.[Girls' Night]
. Berlin Film Festival 1998. Retrieved on 15 May 2011.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Match, The
1995 television films
1995 films
British television films
Films directed by Nick Hurran
Television shows produced by Granada Television
English-language television shows