Film / Cold Enough For Snow

Cold Enough for Snow is a 1997 sequel to Eskimo Day, which was about anxious parents whose teenage children were having interviews at the University of Cambridge. This show follows the children taking their exams and heading off to university, and how each of the parents faces their own personal crisis.

Neil Whittle (Benedict Sandiford), the son of Shani and Bevis (Maureen Lipman and David Ross) from Blackburn, and Pippa Lloyd (Anna Carteret), the daughter of Hugh and Harriet (Tom Wilkinson and Laura Howard) from Cheltenham had both attended interviews at Cambridge, and fallen in love. When they travel to Amsterdam in the summer, they meet Samantha Bodley (Cheryl Fergison), who had picked up the ring Neil had dropped, belonging to his grandma.

Pippa gets into Cambridge, but refuses to attend because of her overbearing father Hugh lying about his own attendance at Cambridge, and making it his life's ambition for her to attend. She attends the University of Exeter instead. Still refusing to leave her alone, Hugh moves his office to Exeter and will not stop following her everywhere, under the guise of being a good father, while Pippa's mother Harriet has an affair with Gordon (Nicholas Le Prevost), a restorer of antiques.

Neil does not get into Cambridge, and also attends Exeter, although he and Pippa drift apart, only seeing each other at the end of the first term. His father Bevis takes the sudden absence of his son very badly and has a nervous breakdown, while his mother Shani intercepts a letter from Samantha Bodley, containing the missing ring, which had previously belonged to Neil's Grandma Whittle, who had been a cleaner at Blackburn College. Seeing this as an omen, Shani decides to pursue studies of her own there, and persuades Bevis to do likewise.

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Cold Enough for Snow provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Hugh does not remember the names of anyone he considers beneath him. He frequently misnames Neil as George Formby, and rattles off a long list of names while addressing his cleaning lady, getting none of them right. He also speaks loudly and slowly to her.
• Blatant Lies: At the beginning, the parents of Pippa and Neil have a secret meeting, to discuss Pippa and Neil's exams; but Pippa and Neil rumble them at once.
  Neil: (answering the phone) This a recorded announcement. If that's the ugliest girl in Cheltenham, you've got the wrong number. BT is not charging you for this call.
  Pippa: (on the phone, lying on an air mattress in her family's private swimming pool) Are your ears burning?
  Neil: Rubbish by our misguided parents, you mean?
  Pippa: Even as we speak, rotary lunch indeed!
  Neil: They only mentioned they were going to Auntie Gwen's twenty-seven times. That's an Auntie Gwen mention in record.
• Brick Joke: When Bevis is sad and alone, he ponders why the letters of the alphabet are in the order that they are; why not A, B, E, K, F, Z? Over Christmas dinner, Neil tells him that he has run this past lots of people, and even the students of linguistics had no answer.
• Chekhov's Gun: This was set up in Eskimo Day, with the wedding ring given to Neil by Shani, which he dropped at Queen's college, and was picked up by Samantha Bodley. She sends the ring back to him by post, in a scruffy envelope, which Shani opens. The letter mentions Blackburn College, and this prompts Shani to pursue studies of her own there, and she persuades the heartbroken Bevis to do likewise.
• Clock Tower: On their way to Exeter, nervous Bevis points out a very obvious clock tower.
  Bevis: Would you say that's a clock tower?
  Neil: That tower with a clock on it? I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
• Contrived Coincidence: When Neil and Pippa are in Amsterdam, they meet Samantha Bodley, who had had her interview at Cambridge before theirs, and picked up a ring which Neil had dropped (see Eskimo Day). They also happen to meet several people they know from their home towns, who are backpacking in Amsterdam.
• Cool Car: Pippa drives her primose-coloured VW convertible, gifted to her by her father (but ungratefully received - see Unwanted Gift Plot below), without a licence, and almost knocks Neil off his bike.
• Comically Missing the Point: Bevis goes to attend a football match, but his heart is not in it without Neil there, and he walks away. He instead meets Shani at the dry cleaners where she works.
  Shani: You were supposed to be at the match. Weren't it the same without him?
  Bevis: Without Alan Shearer?
  Shani: (Seriously) No. I don't mean Alan Shearer.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Hugh clearly does not approve of Neil, and even less of Pippa falling in love with him, instead of concentrating on her studies.
• Deadpan Snarker: Neil's teacher, with his words just before the pupils take their exams.
  Teacher: Sixty seconds to zero hour, then you can demonstrate what we call our education system. On your desks is an envelope, which will be used to send your results to you, write your name and address there. For those of you who can't spell your own name, write a description of yourself. For example, Warburton could write "braindead pillock". They will be sent to you in August, informing you of the appalling grades you have achieved. Read the questions carefully; give yourself time to answer them; good luck; and remember there's always a career for you in the SAS.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In a moment of extreme nervousness, Shani points out that the kettle is steaming, with, you know, steam coming out.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: After trying to discreetly drop hints over Christmas dinner about her mother having an affair, she finally throws caution to the winds.
  Pippa: (under her breath) To hell with it. (Loudly) She is having an affair!
• Dizzy Cam: Used during Bevis's Inner Monologue, when he is lost in his own thoughts.
• Empty Nest: The parents suffer in different ways when Pippa and Neil have departed, especially Bevis, who has a nervous breakdown.
• Epic Tracking Shot: When the letter containing Neil's exam results is posted, it is seen going through a sequence of various machines at the post office, finally ending up in the postman's hand.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Because it is Hugh's ambition for Pippa to attend Cambridge, he goes to great lengths to make sure this happens, including having a secret meeting with Neil's parents to forbid Pippa and Neil from contacting each other. When Pippa and Neil travel to Amsterdam in the summer, Hugh follows them there, subtly showing his disapproval of Neil. In Exeter, he sets up an office so that he can keep an eye on Pippa, under the guise of being a good father. The day she arrives at the University of Exeter, she finds that he has bought her large amounts of expensive equipment, including a classic car. He has also checked that her neighbouring students are good sorts, both at private schools. He also tries to meet up with university staff, in an attempt to spy on Pippa.
• Foreshadowing: The importance of Neil's exam and results is foreshadowed in many ways:
  • Neil double-checks the time on his watch.
  • Bevis offers to drive him to school, in case Neil gets a puncture on his bike.
  • Neil barely eats breakfast.
  • Just before departing, to distract himself, he glances into an empty and neglected rabbit hutch in the garden.
    Neil: I miss Wilhemina Fluff.
    Bevis: She's been dead for years, you hated her.
    Shani: We had a funeral for her. You made us all sing Run Rabbit, Run.
  • Later, Bevis refuses to drive past the school, in case he disturbs Neil's exam.
  • The letter containing his results is very much treated as a momentous missive.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Slightly different to how they were in Eskimo Day:
  • Phlegmatic: Harriet.
  • Sanguine: Shani.
  • Choleric: Hugh.
  • Melancolic: Bevis.
• Funny Background Event:
  • The camera pans past a poster advertising the film of Romeo and Juliet, when Gordon is trying to seduce Harriet.
  • Soon after Pippa has arrived at university, glad to be away from her parents, another student is telephoning her mother, pleading to go back home.
• Group Picture Ending: The film ends this way.
• Helicopter Parents: Hugh simply will not leave Pippa alone when she goes to university, finding out about her neighbouring students, setting up his office nearby, and playing golf with university lecturers, so that he can pry about how she is getting on.
• Heroic B So D: Poor Bevis reacts very badly to Neil leaving home, as he was very close to his son, and his life feels meaningless without him.
  • This begins when Shani asks him to set the table for dinner, and he automatically lays three places instead of two.
  • Later, Bevis has a massive fit of Mirthless Laughter at work in the car maintenance garage, witnessed by his colleagues, Pete and Terry, during a tea break.
    Terry: Bevis! (Bevis pays no attention) Commander to base, commander to base! Terry to zombie! Have you finished with your crossword?
    Bevis: (absently) Yeah.
    Terry: (Looking at it) You've not done one.
    Bevis: Couldn't find my pencil.
    Terry: Here's your pencil.
    (Bevis just sits there)
    Terry: Well, go on. Your bloody pencil.
    (In exasperation, Terry picks up most of the paper, leaving the crossword with Bevis)
    Pete: You know the best thing about working with Bevis? He's never a cross word. Crossword? You get it? Crossword? Good, innit?
    (Bevis starts laughing raucously but mirthlessly, with increasing mania)
    Pete: It's not that bloody hilarious, Bevis, give over!
    (After a while, Bevis suddenly stops laughing, and looks very serious)
    Terry: Take no notice, you laugh all you like, it's a free country.
    Bevis: (seriously) I don't want to now.
  • While fixing a breakdown at the roadside, he is distracted by a group of young boys playing football, and calls to them.
    Bevis: Neil!! That's enough football, go in, your tea will be ready, go and get your knees washed.
    Boy: What's he on about? There is no Neil!
    Bevis: (to himself, genuinely surprised) Oh! No Neil. (Calling again) Bevis!! In, now, before I clutter your earhole.
    Boy: There's no Bevis, neither.
    Bevis: (completely lost in his own world) Oh! No Bevis. Whatever happened to Bevis then? Where's Bevis?
  • Finally, after a long Inner Monologue about recurring childhood memories, enigmas such as "why are the letters of the alphabet in the order that they are?", his "life gone with nowt to show", the title of the film is referenced in a sad Snow Means Death moment. One night, Bevis goes outside and curls up in the snow, like the proverbial Eskimo parents whose children have left home. He is soon rescued by Shani, who is determined to put things right for him.
• Interrupted Intimacy: As Neil and Pippa enjoy a kiss in Amsterdam, Samantha Bodley suddenly swishes past with a jingle of little bells, and greets them.
  Samantha: (wide-eyed and very earnest) Oh, it's you two! Did you get in?
  (Neil and Pippa look puzzled)
  Samantha: Queen's!! Cambridge!! I didn't. "Dear Miss Bodley, sorry to inform you..." Their loss.
  Pippa: How did you...
  Samantha: Mine was the interview before yours.
• Jaw Drop: Pippa's friend Holly Roberts, when she sees Harriet having a final kiss with Gordon.
• Jealous Parent: Hugh clearly envies Pippa's close relationship with her mother, and insists on taking her to university himself.
  Harriet: Are you sure you don't want me to come with?
  Hugh: What on earth for? She's with her father.
• Leitmotif: Ethereal music plays during the scenes involving Grandma Whittle's wedding ring.
• Long List: Shani rattles off a long list of pieces of advice for Neil, as they travel to university.
  Shani: I should really have written it all down by rights, under "headings".
• Lying on a Hillside: Neil heads to the top of a hill to get away from everything, after finding out his exam results. Bevis is later seen on the same hill, during his own crisis.
• Manly Tears: Bevis sobs loudly in the absence of his son. When Shani comes home, he tries to tell her that he was singing. She is not fooled, and encourages him to cry it all away.
• Mood Whiplash: Hugh is briefly elated when Pippa telephones to tell him that she got the grades to get into Cambridge, and sends a member of staff to fetch the champagne. However, a few seconds later he is hanging his head in despair when Pippa then declares that she will not go to Cambridge, because of him, just as his assistant rushes in with the champagne.
• Mysterious Note:
  • Pippa receives a postcard signed by a well-wisher, telling her that her mother is having an affair. Pippa recognises the handwriting as belonging to her friend Holly Roberts.
  • Shani receives the lost wedding ring belonging to Grandma Whittle, accompanied by a note from Samantha Bodley, who is unknown to her.
• Narcissist: Hugh. So much.
• Non-Idle Rich: Pippa's middle-class family is shown to be wealthy from Hugh's financial business, owning a large house with a swimming pool; Pippa attended a private school and has her own mobile phone, which was unusual for teenagers in 1997; a Range Rover is mentioned.
• Noodle Incident: Neil's immediate reaction to not getting into Cambridge is not seen, along with the contents of his wrapped "well done" present from his parents.
• Obligatory Earpiece Touch: One of Hugh's staff does this, when taking a call from Pippa.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During one scene between Pippa and her father, she approaches him for support, at first with her usual frosty manner towards him. His first instinct is to offer her financial support, but she actually wants emotional support, after a male friend who claimed to fall in love with her ignored her for three weeks. In a mutual Pet the Dog moment, he seems to admit to his own fault, and she becomes warmer towards him.
  Hugh: (taking Pippa's hand; for once, she does not resist) Men can be like that, taking things for granted, other people, or they seem to. They do feel what other people accuse them of not feeling, but they don't get around to showing it.
  Pippa: (tearfully) For three whole bloody weeks?
  Hugh: Sometimes longer. Sometimes... (referring to himself) eighteen years, some chaps.
  (Pippa gazes tearfully at him, then her expression softens)
  Pippa: (almost in a whisper, perhaps asking him for something for the first time in her life) Can I have some of your pizza?
• Overt Rendezvous: At the very beginning, the parents Shani and Bevis have their secret meeting with Hugh and Harriet on a footbridge, above a busy road, with each family arriving from opposite sides, meeting in the middle. They later move to a cafe.
• Pubescent Braces: When Pippa heads off to university, Harriet says that it was just like Pippa's first day at school, apart from the brace on her teeth.
• Product Placement: Pippa's friend Holly Roberts is mentioned to be working at Sock Shop, and is later seen there, complete with uniform. Harriet also mentions that she once caught Pippa kissing a packet of Persil detergent.
• Puddle-Covering Chivalry: Played straight when Gordon lays his coat down, for Harriet to walk across a puddle.
• The Reason You Suck:
  • In a huge showdown of Calling the Old Man Out, Pippa has a shouting match with her father about why she will not go to Cambridge. She also makes digs at her mother for enslaving herself to Hugh.
    Pippa: When I rang you, I didn't even know Neil's results! I've told you the reason. You're the bloody reason.
    Hugh: All this because of one white lie, one bloody day in Cambridge!
    Pippa: Only partly. And partly the eighteen years before that.
    Hugh: (exasperated, to Harriet) Say something, woman.
    Harriet: (to Pippa) You must do what you want in life, Muffin.
    Hugh: Oh thanks, that's a great help!
    Pippa: You never did though, did you, mum?
    Harriet: (thinking of her affair) Not now, you mean?
    Pippa: (not knowing) Why now? It's a bit late for doing what you want in life now, mum.
  • Harriet makes such a speech to Gordon, applying it more to herself than to Gordon, before she separates from him for the last time.
    Gordon: That's what I love about you, your sense of humour in adversity, one of your most admirable...
    Harriet: Gordon!! I don't have a sense of humour, in or out of adversity. I'm not beautiful, my hair isn't gorgeous, and I'm not any of the things you say I am. And most of all, I'm not even me any more! I can't be what I'm not. I don't like what I am, but at least it's me. And if I'm all that marvellous, what am I doing with you? I'm sorry, Gordon. Goodbye. (Gives him a brief handshake)
    Gordon: (Unphased) Do I get a goodbye kiss, from the most beautiful lips in the world?
    Harriet: Gordon, they're just lips! Chapped ones.
    (He seizes her, and they kiss noisily. Holly Roberts, who is working in Sock Shop nearby, stares in open-mouthed horror.)
• Running Gag:
  • In Amsterdam, Neil and Pippa keep running into people they know.
  • Gordon constantly showers Harriet with compliments, but she has too little self-esteem to accept them.
  • When Pippa makes very insightful statements about her relationship with her parents, Hugh will automatically ask his wife "what does she mean?".
  • Hugh can never remember Neil's name, perhaps citing his disapproval of Neil.
• Shout-Out: Hugh refers to Shani and Bevis as "Wallace and Gromit". Shani refers to the overbearing Hugh as "The Incredible Hulk".
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Pippa conspires with Neil to bring their families together for Christmas, even though the sets of parents disapprove of each other.
  Pippa: I want you to come home to Cheltenham for Christmas.
  Neil: Cheltenham?! My mother will throw the mother of all wobblies. She'd kill me to death.
  Pippa: Bring her, bring both of them.
  Neil: They'll just say no. Come to think of it, so will yours, very loudly.
  Pippa: They can't, any of them. If I tell mine I won't go unless you're all invited, and you tell yours you'll go alone unless they come with, then they'll have to say yes, otherwise they think they'll lose us altogether, they can't win!
  Neil: You're on. (They resume their passionate kissing and embracing) I don't know what drives them to have kids in the first place.
• The Stoic: Neil, especially when he does not get into Cambridge. His immediate reaction is not seen, and he takes himself to an isolated spot to sit and contemplate the view. Bevis later joins him.
• There's No Place Like Home: When Pippa arrives at the University of Exeter, glad to be away from home, a homesick student is twice seen telephoning her mother, pleading to come back home.
• Twist Ending: The final scene is captioned "Graduation Day". It is not Pippa and Neil who graduate, but Shani. Pippa and Neil instead have a baby daughter, and the final shot of the film is a Group Picture Ending of the entire family.
• Unwanted Gift Plot: When Pippa arrives at university, she finds that her meddling father has showered her with gifts, to try to ingratiate himself with her, as she bears grudges against him for many reasons. She makes no attempt to hide her displeasure.
  Hugh: New laptop and printer.
  Pippa: (Angrily) I've got a laptop and printer.
  Hugh: Last year's.
  Pippa: Dad?! Some people have pen and paper. Pencils and paper. Stubby pencils and paper!
  Hugh: And that's a new duvet. Book tokens for textbooks.
  Pippa: Stop it!! Stop it!!
  Hugh: (Deadpan) I'm being a good father, for God's sake.
  Pippa: (Now furious) Really? Just like that. Suddenly, one Tuesday afternoon.
  Hugh: The VW convertible is too big for a box, that's coming tomorrow. Primrose.
• Wham Line: Pippa calls Hugh at work to tell him her exam results, then tells him her future plans.
  Pippa: I got three A's.
  Hugh: (Delighted, beating the table) Muffin. Oh Muffin! We did it. We only went and bloody did it. (To his assistant) The boiler jug, it's in the fridge.
  Pippa: No. I won't be going, to Cambridge. It's the last place I'd go.
  Hugh: But you got what they wanted, three A's.
  Pippa: That's got nothing to do with it.
  Hugh: (Not believing his ears) Do you have a reason?
  Pippa: Yes, a very good reason. You. I'm sorry. Anywhere, but there. (Hangs up)
  (Hugh slowly puts his receiver down, as his assistant rushes in with the boiler jug; he waves her away, and hangs his head in devastation.)

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