in spite of sterling work by the support actor and and an intelligent script by alan plater and this film suffers from a fatal flaw the lack of charm of the central character or actor . one of the character describe richard e grant character a a whine little turd and unfortunately this sum him up perfectly . there be nothing about him or his performance to make it credible that his girlfriend and upper class publisher or friend would spend so much time and emotional effort on him . he be rude and arrogant and selfish and self destructive and thoroughly annoying . the part call for an actor who can make you love him even when he be be a prate a ewan mcgregor and for example . all of the witty satire on the class system etc be waste and thanks to this irritating and thoroughly unlikeable performance . all i want to do be shake him and tell him to get over himself .