Rita, Sue And Bob Too [1987]

Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two giggly Bradford lasses stuck on a ramshackle housing estate. They keep themselves in fags by occasional baby-sitting for nouveau riche couple Bob (George Costigan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). Bob fancies himself rotten, but Michelle has ruled that sex is off the menu. So one night, driving Rita and Sue home, Bob detours to the Yorkshire moors and offers the girls a little something extra in his front seat. Rita and Sue decide to grab it while they can.

Alan Clarke's cult following is founded on his bleak, brilliant films about violent young men (Scum, The Firm, Made in Britain). But Rita, Sue is a tribute to Clarkey's ribald sense of humour. It even sports a cameo from novelty pop-act Black Lace, performing their non-hit "Gang-Bang". Teenage debutantes Holmes and Finneran are terrific--just watch them dancing lustily around Bob's red leather sofa to Bananarama. In support, Clarke wisely cast skilled northern comedians like Patti Nicholls and Willie Ross, as Sue's foul-mouthed mum and dad. Amid the laughs, Clarke as usual doesn't stint from showing us the harsh, unlovely side of life. He shot the film on location at Bradford's Buttershaw estate, where Andrea Dunbar grew up and where, tragically, she died of a brain haemorrhage only a few years after the film's release. --Richard Kelly

The scene where Bob's wife confronts him when she find's out about his infidelity is an absolutely classic, and involves one of the funniest lines in British movie history. The film also has some tragic moments, with Sue getting involved with an Asian woman-beater (a bit over-sterotypical here )while Rita gets up the duff with nowhere to turn, refusing to go back to finish her studies. It is here where we see that Sue is likely to survive the rigours of life (she is the brighter of the two), with Rita likely to struggle through poor choices, no self-confidence and a complete lack of direction.

Overall, RSABT combines a perfect blend of plot, brilliantly-played northern comedy (and great casting)with a tragic subtext throughout. It also gives us a small insight into Thatcher's Britain in the mid-1980's, where the class-divide was getting wider by the day. Highly recommended, but not for one for the faint-hearted !


Fantasic from start to finish.   December 17, 2000
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

This film has me in stiches from start to finish, its a film that makes me laugh no matter how many times i see it. The so true to life story of Rita Sue and Bob is one that every movie fan should encounter without a doubt. Rita and Sue are teenage school girls who babysitt for Michelle and Bob, but Bob's wandering hands soon get him into hot water. Bobs wife Michelle soon cottons on to whats going on and the muck hits the fan. This film is written in the style that the BBC's Royle Family is, if you like that sort of comedy then this is a film no movie fan should be without.


Funniest Film to take you back to your Babysitting Days!   March 21, 2002
liz.keeler@bluearc.com (UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

2 young girls babysitting for couple, the husband is a bit of a romeo. See the antics that the girls and Bob get up too.... really funny - it had me in hysterics. It could so happen, so what NOT to let your daughters do as far as babysitting goes. Some extreme language used, but all part of the film.


Rita, Sue, Bob Too - THE film of the 80's   April 22, 2004
Roverdom (Yorkshire)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This has got to be THE film of the 80's and for the generation of people living through this decade this is certainly a film they can identify with. Maggie's britain at it's "best". A great portrayal of hard-ship and struggle on a northern council estate. A classic representation of what went on then and still goes on today. One of the best films I have ever viewed which touches on the truth.


Could ONLY have been made in the 80's   May 25, 2004
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Ok so you know the basic story yeah?
Randy thirtysomething cassanova seduces his two teenage baby sitters!
The story is pretty paper thin but the performances from all the actors in this cult classic make this a very very enjoyable film.
The language is coarse and some racism too but in a film where the whole plot surrounds what is basically a peodophile this is not surprising.

Like I said this film could ONLY have been made in the 80's if it where to be released now there would be a national outcry to get it banned but as somebody has already pointed out this could "SO happen".

The film is set in a run down coucil estate where Bob and his wife pay a couple of "young lasses" to baby sit, Bob tries it on (with great sucess) one night while driving them home. The story unfolds with a few mild twists and turns but as stated the sheer quality of the performance makes this a very enjoyable movie which you will no doubt watch again and again (unless you are easily offended)