Beautiful Thing (film) Beautiful Thing (film) Beautiful Thing is a 1996 British film directed by Hettie MacDonald and released by Channel 4 Films. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Harvey based on his own original play of the same name. The film was originally intended for television broadcast only, but it was so well-received that it was subsequently released in cinemas. The atmosphere of the film is heavily influenced by a soundtrack consisting almost entirely of the music of The Mamas & the Papas and "Mama" Cass Elliot. The story is set and filmed on Thamesmead, a working class area of South East
The Mamas & the Papas below). An alcoholic through the 1960s and 1970s, Doherty recovered in the early 1980s and stayed sober for the remainder of his life.In 1996, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Doherty answered John Phillips' PBS documentary with the autobiographical stage musical "Dream a Little Dream (the Nearly True Story of the Mamas and the Papas)", which he wrote with Paul Ledoux and performed sporadically, starting in Halifax in 1997, and eventually reaching the off-Broadway Village Theater in New York in 2003. The original cast recording – featuring Doherty and supporting band – was released by Lewlacow