Cynthia Payne through by standing for Parliament as a candidate for the Payne and Pleasure Party in the Kensington by-election in July 1988, followed by her standing in her own area of Streatham for the Rainbow Dream Ticket in the 1992 UK General Election. She did not gain a parliamentary seat. There are two films that are loosely based on her life, both released in 1987: "Wish You Were Here", about her adolescence, with Emily Lloyd in the lead role, and "Personal Services", about her adult life, starring Julie Walters. Both were written (and "Wish You Were Here" was directed) by David
Wish You Were Here (1987 film) her town's dull young men, Lynda has her first sexual experience with Dave but after she has slept with one of her father's middle-aged friends, her life changes. She becomes pregnant and her father, a somewhat rigid and conventional man, disowns her. Desperately she tries to seek an illegal abortion but in the end decides to become a mother. The film was based loosely on the memoirs of the British madam Cynthia Payne as an adolescent growing up on the Sussex coast. It was filmed in the Sussex towns of Brighton, Worthing and Bognor Regis. "Wish You Were Here" has