''The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'' is a British

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

of 1997 based on

Jilly Cooper Jilly Cooper, CBE (born 21 February 1937), is an English author. She began her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. She is most famous for wr ...

's 1993 book of the same name in the

Rutshire Chronicles The Rutshire Chronicles is a series of romantic novels by Jilly Cooper. The stories tell tales of mainly British upper-class families, as well as the show-jumping and polo crowd, in numerous different sexually charged scenarios, often laced with a ...

series, directed by

Robert Knights Robert Knights (born 1942 in England) is a British film and television director, perhaps best known for his film '' The Dawning'', about the Irish War of Independence. He has been nominated for three BAFTA TV Awards and he won the Montréal W ...

and produced by Sarah Lawson. The title role of Lysander Hawkley is played by

Stephen Billington Stephen Billington (born 10 December 1964) is an English actor, best known for playing Greg Kelly in ''Coronation Street'' (for which he won the 1999 British Soap Award for Villain of the Year). Career Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, Billingto ...

. With a length of 146 minutes, broadcasters usually divide the production into a serial of three episodes. It is available on DVD.

Production

The producer, Sarah Lawson, had previously worked with the director she hired for the film,

, on the feature film ''

The Dawning ''The Dawning'' is a 1988 British drama film based on Jennifer Johnston's novel, '' The Old Jest'', which depicts the Irish War of Independence through the eyes of the Anglo-Irish landlord class. It stars Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Grant, Jean Simmon ...

'' (1988). Knights had begun his directing career in the 1970s on

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

's ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage ...

'' and was in the middle of a distinguished career in television drama and film which had already taken in ''

The History Man Bradbury's best known novel, ''The History Man'', a campus novel published in 1975, is a satire of academic life in the "glass and steel" universities, the ones established in the 1960s which followed the "redbricks". In 1981 the book was made ...

'' (1981), ''

Porterhouse Blue ''Porterhouse Blue'' is a novel written by Tom Sharpe, first published in 1974. A satirical look at Cambridge life and the struggle between tradition and reform, ''Porterhouse Blue'' tells the story of Skullion, the Head Porter of Porterhouse, ...

'' (1987), and ''

Double Vision Diplopia is the simultaneous perception of two images of a single object that may be displaced horizontally or vertically in relation to each other. Also called double vision, it is a loss of visual focus under regular conditions, and is often v ...

'' (1992). His work on ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''

The Glittering Prizes ''The Glittering Prizes'' is a British television drama by Frederic Raphael about the changing lives of a group of Cambridge students, starting in 1952 and following them through to middle age in the 1970s. It was first broadcast on BBC2 in Jan ...

'' (1976) had been nominated for

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

. The casting director did not look for established stars. Stephen Billington, who had the pivotal role of Lysander Hawkley, was almost unknown when he was chosen from the hundreds who auditioned to play the part.

Donna King Donna King (born 1957) is an American dancer and musical theatre performer who appeared in Broadway musicals in the 1970s and 1980s and has lived and worked mostly in England since the 1980s. She is also an actress and has appeared in theatre ...

, who played one of Lysander's love interests, had originally been a dancer and had originated the part of Bombalurina in

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

's ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

'' on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. The costs of the production were reported in May 1997 as £3,000,000. The publicity pictures portrayed "a smooth young opportunist surrounded by eager women of all ages".

Outline

In the opening scene, Lysander Hawkley (Stephen Billington), accompanied by a

Jack Russell Terrier The Jack Russell Terrier is a small terrier that has its origins in fox hunting in England. It is principally white-bodied and smooth, rough or broken-coated and can be any colour. Small tan and white terriers that technically belong to oth ...

which goes everywhere with him, is caught making love to Martha (Donna King), the neglected wife of Elmer Winterton (

Mac McDonald Mac McDonald (born Terence McDonald; June 18, 1949) is an American actor. He is known for playing Captain Hollister on the BBC TV series '' Red Dwarf'' and frequently plays American characters in other British TV shows. He has also had many mov ...

). He runs naked out of the house and through a garden, pursued by the jealous Winterton with a crossbow, and hides in a tree, where he is found and trapped by

Rottweiler The Rottweiler (, ) is a breed of domestic dog, regarded as medium-to-large or large. The dogs were known in German as , meaning Rottweil butchers' dogs, because their main use was to herd livestock and pull carts laden with butchered mea ...

s.Dave Lanning
Sooper-Stud's Flight of Fancy
dated June 8, 1997, in ''

The People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...

'' (London, England) at highbeam.com, accessed 6 April 2018 Hawkley is a semi-professional tennis player in his early twenties who is becoming notorious in the gossip columns for affairs with a series of married women. After his mother's funeral, his disapproving father (

T. R. Bowen Trevor Bowen (sometimes T. R. Bowen, born 1941 in Rangoon, Burma) is an English actor and screenwriter who has appeared frequently in British television dramas since the mid-1960s. Early life He is the son of Major General W. O. Bowen and w ...

) refuses to give him any more money. When Hawkley then complains to his friend Ferdie (

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams (born 10 November 1963) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey''. His performance on the show earned him a nom ...

) about the dire state of his debts, they form a plan for Hawkley to take money from neglected wives to make their husbands jealous. This is followed with solid financial success until Hawkley meets Kitty Rannaldini (Kate Byers), the wife of a world-famous conductor. He finds himself out of his depth when he becomes besotted with her.

Reception

'' commented on the production that only Jilly Cooper could get away with "a preposterous hero with a name that sounds like an RAF Transport plane". It continued In ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'',

David Aaronovitch David Morris Aaronovitch (born 8 July 1954) is an English journalist, television presenter and author. He is a regular columnist for ''The Times'' and the author of ''Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country'' (2000), ''Voodoo ...

noted that "Lysander is not predatory, it's just that every woman in the world wants his first service, and what can a guy do?" Aaronovitch went on to compare Hawkley with

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

, "The Man Who Makes Politicians Jealous".

"The Terrier Gets Closer Than the Wolf"
in ''

'' online dated 7 June 1997, accessed 6 April 2018 In ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', Richard Wallace commented "If

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the ...

thinks the pressure's on as Wimbledon approaches, he ought to try stepping into the tennis shoes of Stephen Billington."Richard Wallace
Anyone for the Tennis Smasher?
dated May 31, 1997, in ''The Mirror'' (London, England), accessed 6 April 2018

Cast

as Lysander Hawkley
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous
' at radiotimes.com, accessed 6 April 2018 *

as Ferdie Fitzgerald *

as David Hawkley *

as Martha Winterton *

as Elmer Winterton *

Rhona Mitra Rhona is the name of: * Rhona Adair (1878–1961), British golf champion * Rhona Bennett (born 1976), American singer, actress and model * Rhona Brankin (born 1950), Labour Co-operative politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament * Rhona Bro ...

as Flora Seymour *

Philip Bowen Philip Bowen is a British actor who has appeared in a number of British film and television roles including in ''The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'', ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', ''Kavanagh QC'' and ''Soldier Soldier''. He was born in Sutton Cold ...

as Guy Seymour *

Gilly Coman Gilly Coman (13 September 1955 – 13 July 2010) was an English people, English actress, who played Aveline in the first four series of Carla Lane's sitcom ''Bread (TV series), Bread''. She also appeared in ''Scully (TV series), Scully'', ' ...

as Marigold Lockton * Nicholas Ball as Larry Lockton *

Kim Criswell Kim Criswell (born July 19, 1957) is an American musical entertainer and actress. Life and career Criswell was born in Hampton, Virginia, United States, and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After she graduated from Hixson High School in subur ...

as Georgie Maguire *

Ravil Isyanov Ravil Akhmedullovich Isyanov (russian: Равиль Ахмедуллович Исьянов; 20 August 1962 – 29 September 2021) was a Russian actor who appeared in over 70 film and television roles, primarily in the United States. He was most ...

as Boris Levitsky *

Rosalind Plowright Rosalind Anne Plowright (born 21 May 1949) is an English opera singer who spent much of her career as a soprano but in 1999 changed to the mezzo-soprano range. Life and career Rosalind Plowright was born in Worksop and studied at the Royal ...

as Hermione Harefield *

Derek de Lint Dick Hein "Derek" de Lint (; born 17 July 1950) is a Dutch film and television actor, known for playing the role of Derek Rayne in '' Poltergeist: The Legacy''. Life and career Dick Hein de Lint was born on 17 July 1950 in The Hague in the N ...

as Roberto Rannaldini *Kate Byers as Kitty Rannaldini *Sandra Reinton as Julia *Nichola Cordey as Nikki *Stephen Ullathorne as Journalist *Tim Meats as Priest *Maureen Bennett as Matron *Kate Blackham as Waitress *Fiona Dunn as Waitress * Joanna Jeffrees as Friend at concert *

Fiona Richmond Fiona Richmond (born 2 March 1945) is an English former glamour model and actress. She became a British sex symbol in the 1970s for her appearances in numerous risqué plays, comedy revues, magazines and films. She has been described as one of ...

as extra (uncredited)

Notes

External links