User Reviews

1977's 'Kiss of Death' is another BBC Play for Today written (or devised) and directed by Mike Leigh. It follows a shy mortician's assistant named Trevor as he gets a girlfriend, leading to the eponymous kiss, and like all of Leigh's best television work it is a character study in which very little actually happens.

Trevor is played by David Threlfall, who gives an utterly convincing performance as the quiet, reserved young man. The play follows Trevor as he goes to work, prepares bodies for viewings, goes to the pub with his mate Ronnie and eventually meets Kay Adshead's Linda. Their eventual first kiss is implied to Trevor's first kiss ever. Trevor is more than just a shy, awkward young man, a fact that gradually becomes obvious when he deals with a dead child, an unwell old lady, and his relationship with Linda. He's also capable of being sulky and petulant. He is, in short, not a cliché who can be described in a few words, but a more realistic, believable character, as indeed is Linda. The kiss scene, with its complex miasma of emotions, is riveting. At the same time, it's uncomfortable because it feels voyeuristic, so closely does Leigh draw the audience in (literally, thanks to the closeness of the camera).

This approach works purely because the characters, none of whom are especially beautiful, brilliant or special, are likeable and the audience comes to sympathise with them. This is of course partly due to the character development (presumably resulting from the usual Leigh/cast collaboration that the director favours) and the performances of the actors. What the viewer ends up watching, with interest, is a completely plausible and realistic relationship developing - in all its clumsiness - between two ordinary people. Threlfall is compelling as Trevor, as is Adshead as Linda, whilst John Wheatley is equally convincing as Trevor's nice but dim mate Ronnie, who is going out with Angela Curran's Sandra. They have yet to have sex, with Ronnie attributes to logistical reasons. It soon becomes clear that when the opportunity arises, nerves keep getting the better of him; for all that he is outwardly more confident than Trevor, he is just as believably awkward and insecure.

'The Kiss of Death' is one of Leigh's more whimsical works, a fact reflected by Carl Davis' incidental score, but it still has emotional impact at times, notably during the unexpectedly powerful and sombre scene when Mr Garside and Trevor are called to a house to deal a dead child. The perpetual focus on Leigh's collaborative approach to script writing means his talents as a director are often overlooked by some reviewers and they shouldn't be: the scene is shot with an awful, documentary starkness that conveys the horror of the situation without sensationalising or barely even commenting on it: the looks on the faces of the actors (including Clifford Kershaw, who previously appeared in Leigh's 'Hard Labour', as Trevor's boss Mr Garside) say everything. As per Leigh's preference, the entire film is shot on location, and the director pays meticulous attention to detail, with the camera often focusing on the minutiae of Trevor's work.

Preceding his successful film career, Leigh's television work is often overlooked. But now that his extensive work for the BBC has been made available on home media, it is ripe for reappraisal and can be seen by a whole new audience; 'Abigail's Party' (also made in 1977) might be the Leigh Play for Today that gets most widely talked about, but 'Kiss of Death' nicely demonstrates that it is by no means the only one worth seeking out.