Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita is a British 1983 drama/comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, and Maureen Lipman. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The British Film Institute ranked "Educating Rita" the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. A Liverpudlian working-class young hairdresser Rita (Julie Walters) wants to better herself by studying
Edwin Shirley illustrious Tour Manager and the two of them wrote the book on how to party on tour." Having built a successful trucking company, Shirley started a new company Edwin Shirley Staging which built stages for a number of large concerts including Live Aid in 1985. Shirley left both companies in the 1990s. While looking for rehearsal space in East London, Shirley viewed Three Mills Island, and realised the potential to develop a film studio there. After meeting with Peter Bazalgette, Shirley secured the site as the location for the first "Big Brother" reality TV programme, which went on to become