I've long imagined you can see in the film version of Waterhouse's novel Billy Liar the moment when the interest in the angry young men of the 1950s gives way to the myth of swinging London.
It's not just in the fact that Tom Courtenay's Billy isnt really angry. He's a fantasist who's not willing to pursue his fantasies. In short, he's a Smiths fan avant la lettre.
But more than that, it's in the incarnation of his fantasy - Julie Christie.
Christie plays a girl that does the things Billy just dreams about. She gets on the train to London and goes, while Billy stays.
I've always imagined that she got off the train from Leeds and straight into the heart of the swinging sixties (and onto the set of Darling; a journey also made by director John Schlesinger who directed both movies). I like the idea so much I've never done the cursory research to see if Christie made any movies in between Billy Liar and Darling, safe in the notion that we're talking fictions here anyway and if I'm not right, the idea feels right.
The other Waterhouse notion is that in all the obits I've been reading one of his greatest achievements is overlooked or at the very least only appears near the end in the "he also wrote" section.
Perhaps that's because his TV series Budgie isn't quite as good as I remember it. That's possible. It's been the best part of two decades since I last watched it. And yet I remember it as very good, with nuanced performances from Adam Faith in the title role, Iain Cuthbertson as the Scottish criminal Charlie Endell and in particular Georgina Hale as Budgie's estranged wife, and some sharp writing by Waterhouse and his writing partner Willis Hall.
Am I wrong? (TJ)
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