Watch Abigail's Party For Free

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

My parents had told me about this many times in the past, but last night when it was back on television was the first time I had ever seen it.How fantastic! Classic Mike Leigh - incredibly funny, but at the same time really dark. A very British comedy - the idea that as the plot progresses, the knives are out and everyone's character is slowly assassinated. It's what we Brits do so well (if it's actually something of which to be proud!) - comedy that rejoices not just in others' misfortune, but ultimately in their total psychological destruction.And what relentlessly horrible characters! There were times when it made me cringe so much, I had to leave the room.

i was an avid watcher of 'play for today' because the next day at work everybody would talk about it.in the case of abigail's party people still talk about it now.when the wonderful alison steadman created the social climbing hostess beverly,she created a monster.as she strutted her stuff we cringed.her awful taste in music,her walking all over her husband,her unsubtle attempts to seduce tony,her thanking sue for the bottle of red wine and putting it in the fridge. when the play was re-screened two years later it captured an audience of 16 million.it has since become a favourite for brave amateur drama groups.my favourite story concerning this is the group that decided to stage the play and use real alcoholic drinks-they never made it to act 2.

I am currently taking drama as a gcse subject, and this was a play that we had to watch on t.v in a lesson for our coursework. First of all, the whole class thought it would be rubbish and really boring, but how wrong we were! The film is completely brilliant!! Its, cringing and painful to watch at times, others you want to slap at the characters or shout at them but mainly you're rolling around in laughter! Watching this film was definitely a time well spent, and I can't wait until we see it in the theatre! All the characters are completely annoying in their own way, but no one can top Beverly's squeaky voice, and Tony's violent outbursts! This is definitely a play to recommend!!

Beverly.. what a woman. This is 1977 and she is one of a kind. I feel as if she lives on today, because the nuances of her character continue to echo into countless present day screen icons. We see shades of Marjorie Doors (Little Britain) borrowing her patronising vocal confirmations and put downs, shards of Jill (Nighty Night) continuing her friendly bullying regime, and a few spoonfuls of the self centred hedonistic Edina (Ab Fab) trying to get the most out of every situation, for herself.So thats Beverly. As for the play itself, it starts off very amusingly. There is an absolutely CLASSIC scene you will be playing again and again where Beverly takes Angela to one side for some criticism about her lipstick application technique. You will possibly find yourself in stitches, mimicking her sultry application action. As the play progresses (and Beverly gets more drunk) I found myself getting as irritated as the characters themselves, until I wanted to shout SHUT UP BEVERLY and throw the TV out of my window. I didn't understand why Tony was so miserable throughout.. or why Angela spoke as if she was a few pennies short of a fiver (maybe she in fact was?). A delicious snapshot of a feasible suburban nightmare none-the-less! I shudder to think what my neighbours get up to..