Two more votes for Bend It Like Beckham and Jack and Sarah.
And another warning: Mr. S and I both like Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, and we thought Two Weeks Notice sucked donkey balls.
I thought the surveying plotline in Englishman Who Went up a Hill was much more interesting and belivable than the “romance.”
I have to add another vote for “Little Voice”. Jane Horrocks (Bubble from "Ab/Fab) is just amazing in it, doing spot on vocal impressions of several wonderful female singers. The aforementioned Ewan McGregor is terrific. Michael Caine and Brenda Blethyn are perfect as the comedic foils. It is truly a Cinderella story.
“Greenfingers”
cute, silly, very british.
It’s not a romantic comedy, but it is one of my favorites Billy Elliott. The kid and his father give rock solid performances. The kid is amazing, IMHO.
Watch for the always outstanding Julie Walters as the chain smoking ballet teacher. What’s not to love, really?
Another wonderful solid comedy/drama, also staring Julie Walters is Educating Rita with the wonderfully wonderful Michael Caine. I luffs Michael. I luffs Julie.
An odd one that is hard to find is East is East. A large family of Anglo-Paki kids feel lost in the UK as they don’t fit in in the muslim community or the Anglo world. Mom runs the family chip shop and dad …I think he drinks…some funny brit humor moments. There are something like 8 boys in the family…and each of them is hot in his own way. Kinda odd in a sweet way. For some reason it is set in the early 70’s.
Pride and Prejudice the BBC version with Colin swoooon Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Perfection. Simply Perfection. Bits of little comedy with solid acting and outstanding sets and costumes.
Secrets & Lies is excellent and taught me alot about the patience of movie making and that car chase scenes, nudity and foul language need not be used to keep the integrity of the movie going or to advance a plot. It is a drama with bits of brit humor throughout.
Not a comedy. Dramas, but well done and Aussie. ( Cause I likes them)
Breaker Morant. Awesome acting. Edward Woodward and Bryan Brown.
**The man from Snowy River ** and The Return to Snowy River A guy riding a horse who carries a whip…who has to prove himself to everyone…mostly himself. YAY!
I love BritFliks.
You may have heard of Monty Python & the Holy Grail and The Life of Brian.
Some of the best stuff…evar.
A little bit of everything.
Oooooh!
Snatch. One of my top flicks…I knew I was forgetting something!
Ooh, good choice!
Also Wild West, a fun movie about Pakistani “cowboys” in London.
And if you’re watching Bend It Like Beckham, might as well go whole hog and take in Monsoon Wedding and Bride & Prejudice as well.
Almost 30 posts, and no-one’s mentioned Sliding Doors?
Or Shakespeare in Love?
Most of my choices have already been mentioned (**Little Voice, Love Actually, Sliding Doors, Shakespeare in Love, The Tall Man, Bend it Like Beckham, The Englishman . . . **), but I’ll add Shirley Valentine.
And if you’re going to see Brassed Off, you should also see its slightly inferior cousin, The Full Monty.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
I’ve already seen (and liked) the following –
The Tall Guy
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
Cold Comfort Farm
Waking Ned Divine
Brassed Off
Flirting With Disaster (one of my favourites)
Little Voice
Secrets and Lies - I clearly remember the scene in the cafe in which you can see the penny drop in Brenda Blethyn’s face – fantastic acting
Shakespeare in Love
The Full Monty
I’ll have to check out these suggestions –
Notting Hill
Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel, and Laurence/The Very Thought of You
The Man with Rain in His Shoes/Twice Upon a Yesterday
Deckchair Danny
Muriel’s Wedding
I Capture the Castle
Jack and Sarah
Truly Madly Deeply
Local Hero
Saving Grace
Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility
Greenfingers
Billy Elliott
Educating Rita
Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth
Breaker Morant
The Man from Snowy River
The Return to Snowy River
Wild West (hmm … I’ll have to make sure it’s not the Will Smith one)
Sliding Doors - It’s English? Isn’t it a Gwyneth Paltrow movie?
Shirley Valentine
I find car chases boring and annoying, so I appreciate any movie that doesn’t have one. I don’t have any views on foul language, so this factor doesn’t affect me. Well, nudity – in a good movie, it’s like icing on the cake. Graphic violence I can do without.
Okay, I memorised them when I was in high school. But I doubt they’d be properly classified as romantic comedies. I’m looking for movies that won’t make my wife glare at me.
I saw it and although I’d consider it a good movie, I don’t think I’d call it a romantic comedy. Way too much graphic violence, for one thing.
Being an Indian-American, I try to see all “Indians in the West” movies, so I’ve seen all these. I don’t really consider them to be “English romantic comedies” – “Monsoon Wedding” and “Bride and Prejudice” don’t have any connection with England at all, so far as I can tell.
East Is East - Om Puri is one of my favourite actors and I found the movie generally enjoyable, but I was disturbed by the way his assault at the end was treated as comedy and didn’t seem to have any consequences
Monsoon Wedding - Mildly distracting but overall overrated, I thought
Bend It Like Beckham - Also overrated and the Indian characters were way too stereotyped. Also the actor playing the mother looked way too young
Bride and Prejudice - More than mildly entertaining, but with two big flaws – Okay, so Chadha wanted to ape Bollywood as much as possible, but why oh why do the lip-synching? This is one thing that drives me nuts about Indian movies. I hate lip-synching. The second is that although the acting was generally excellent, the actors playing the two white guys really stank big time.
ascenray, I hope I didn’t offend you by conflating Indian and English movies. I only meant that someone who enjoyed Four Weddings etc. may also enjoy Monsoon Wedding etc. YMMV, especially for people who (unlike me) actually know something about India.
Nah. No worries.
Oops. Fast trigger …
But, also, especially with movies like “Bride and Prejudice” and “Monsoon Wedding,” they defitely don’t have the “smartness” that I like in English romantic comedies. They explicitly try to ape Bollywood conventions, which, even more than American romances, appeal to the dumb side of the brain (in my opinion).
Ascenray, seems to me you’d greatly enjoy The Matchmaker.
“A Room With a View” might be an option. I love it, but I know some people loathe it.
If you like Gwyneth Paltrow… er, okay, if you can stand Gwyneth Paltrow, there’s “Emma.” You can see Ewan McGregor in the world’s worst hairdo. He looks like Danny Bonaduce. Also has the swoonworthy Jeremy Northam.
Just a word of warning…
**Pride & Prejudice ** (with Colin swoon Firth) is a mini-series and is over 5 hours long. Personally, I can handle 5 hours with Mr. Darcy but DeHusband gets a little grumpy. Not only is this worth the rental (Darcy diving in the pond… swoon again), I bought the DVDs before I had a DVD player.
**Truly Madly Deeply ** is wonderful and funny and poignant and has Alan swoon Rickman and will make you cry. Seriously; buckets of tears. But it’s still wonderful and worth seeing.
**Sense & Sensibility ** with Emma Thompson has Hugh Grant and Alan swoon Rickman. OK this isn’t a warning as much as a need to point out my undying love for Alan swoon Rickman.
There’s an A&E/BBC Emma starring the same chick in Cold Comfort Farm-Kate Beckinsale I think her name is. I actually much prefer it to the Gwynnie version.
I just wanted to pop in and highly recommend Sliding Doors. Very enjoyable. IMHO, you should put it near the top of your to-see list.
Another vote for “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and “The Tall Guy”. And almost anything adapted from Jane Austen’s books seems to be good.
You may want to check out “Peter’s Friends”, with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in a non Jeeves/Wooster change of pace. And Emma Thompson of course. In fact, almost anything with Emma Thompson seems to be good 
I am a big fan of A S Byatt’s books, and although the film really didn’t do justice to her book, I have a guilty liking for “Possession”. Hardly a comedy, though.