History Film / BillyLiar

The success of ''Billy Liar'' didn't stop with the film; in 1974 TheMusical ''Billy'', with music by Music/JohnBarry and starring Creator/MichaelCrawford in the title role, was a major hit in the West End, running over 900 performances.

* BettyAndVeronica: Prim, conventional Barbara (Betty) and brassy peroxide blonde Rita, both [[spoiler: engaged to]] Billy. Subverted in that Billy's real love is [[spoiler: Liz]].

A 1963 British film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, starring Creator/TomCourtenay and Creator/JulieChristie. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Keith Waterhouse, and the subsequent play by Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Waterhouse himself based the story on the short story ''Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty'' by Creator/JamesThurber.

Billy Fisher is a nineteen-year-old undertaker's clerk living with his parents and senile grandma in a cramped house in a provincial town in the early 1960s. Stifled by his overbearing family and his mind-numbing job, he yearns to escape to London to become a comedy scriptwriter. Meanwhile he retreats into a fantasy world of his own creation where he is the leader of the fictional country of Ambrosia. He also makes up tall stories about himself and his family which he struggles to reconcile with the real world. As a consequence he finds himself engaged to two different girls, both eager to meet Billy's parents. His real love however is Liz, the only person who really understands Billy, and the one person Billy feels able to confide in. Liz offers him a way out, but has Billy got the bottle to seize it?

* BalconySpeech: Billy, addressing the people of Ambrosia.
--> ''We will build towers. TOWERS! No less.''

* BlingOfWar: In the Ambrosia sequences, Billy.

* {{CloudCuckoolander}}: Billy, of course. Also Barbara, dreaming of her rose-covered cottage in Devon.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rita. She's practically made of snark. Billy has his moments, as does Arthur. Stamp snarks with malice.

* TheGeneralissimo: Billy, as conqueror and leader of Ambrosia.

* BlingOfWar: In the Ambrosia sequences, Billy
* BritishAccents: Specifically, the accents of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Councillor Duxbury, played by the 85-year-old Finlay Currie, still uses the thee/thou forms which were obsolete everywhere but among older Yorkshire people.
--> ''It's Councillor Duxbury, lad. Councillor. Tha wun't call Lord Harewood Mister, would tha?''

A 1963 British film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger and starring Creator/TomCourtenay and Creator/JulieChristie. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Keith Waterhouse, and the subsequent play by Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Waterhouse himself based the story on the short story ''Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty'' by Creator/JamesThurber.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billy_liar_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Grateful! Grateful! Grateful for this, grateful for that! That's all I've ever heard ever!'']]

Although superficially a comedy, Billy Liar is also a serious reflection on the dramatic social and cultural changes that shook up post-war Britain; changes whose ripples can still be felt in the second decade of the 21st century.

* TheMuse: Liz, who encourages Billy to build on his natural creative talents and do his own thing.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rita. She's practically made of snark.

* CatFight: [[spoiler: Barbara]] and [[spoiler: Rita]] when they finally meet at the dancehall and [[spoiler: Rita]] sees [[spoiler: Barbara]] wearing the [[spoiler: engagement ring]].

* AbusiveParents: Geoffrey Fisher has a foul temper and is constantly denigrating his son. Alice Fisher is too busy keeping the house neat and tidy and fretting about keeping up appearances to have much time for Billy. Neither makes any effort to understand Billy or his needs. Nor do they have any time for Grandma [[spoiler: at least until she has a seizure and dies]] and leave her sitting in front of the television talking to herself while life goes on around her.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Billy eventually gives his father one. See the picture caption.

[[caption-width-right:350:Grateful! Grateful! Grateful for this, grateful for that! That's all I've ever heard ever!]]

A 1963 British film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger and starring Creator/TomCourtenay and Creator/JulieChristie. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Keith Waterhouse, and the subsequent play by Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Waterhouse himself based the story on the short story Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty by Creator/JamesThurber.

Billy Fisher is a nineteen-year-old undertaker's clerk living with his parents and senile grandma in a cramped house in a provincial town in the early 1960s. Stifled by his overbearing family and his mind-numbing job, he yearns to escape to London to become a comedy scrptwriter. Meanwhile he retreats into a fantasy world of his own creation where he is the leader of the fictional country of Ambrosia. He also makes up tall stories about himself and his family which he struggles to reconcile with the real world. As a consequence he finds himself engaged to two different girls, both eager to meet Billy's parents. His real love however is Liz, the only person who really understands Billy, and the one person Billy feels able to confide in. Liz offers him a way out, but has Billy got the bottle to seize it?

* AbusiveParents: Jackie Elliot to his children at some points.
** He wants his younger son Billy to do "manly" things, but when he learns Billy wants to be a dancer, he barely accepts it, leading to an heated argument. Billy calls him a bastard, causing Jackie to snap, after a few seconds of silence, and beat Billy.
** He later punches Tony in the face after catching him heading to a shop to steal. The result: Tony has a broken nose.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Billy seems to be feeling an attraction to Debbie in the pillow fight scene, but he does not reciprocate her later interest in him. Billy also can't return Michael's love for him.
* AlwaysCamp: Averted. Despite his love of dance Billy is not gay or even camp. His best friend Michael on the other hand...
* AmbiguouslyGay: Then again, there are people who think the movie can be convincingly read both as a subtle tale of a Billy coming to terms with his sexuality. [[spoiler: After all, he is clearly uncomfortable when Debbie tries to touch him, but he kisses Michael on the cheek before he leaves.]] The ending of the movie is perhaps deliberately left open to allow viewers to decide for themselves. (There's possibly a bit of FridgeBrilliance in the fact that the ballet we see grown-up Billy in at the end is Matthew Bourne's gay interpretation of ''Theatre/SwanLake''.)
* AngryDance: To the Jam's 'A Town Called Malice'.
* BeYourself
* BigDamnKiss: At one point Michael kisses Billy on the cheek; this is Michael's coming out to Billy and declaring his love for him, a love which Billy cannot return. Right before Billy [[spoiler: leaves to go to ballet school, he says goodbye to Michael and kisses him on the cheek. Then "See you, then", and he runs off, leaving Michael looking after him.]]
* BlackSheep: Billy.
* BoxingLesson: Kinda.
* CampGay: Billy's best friend Michael.
* CampStraight: Billy, arguably. He's not camp at all but he's into ballet, in which a very disproportionately high number of gay men are involved.
* DistantFinale: In the final sequence, Billy's father and brother make the journey down to London (they are seen riding the then-new extension of the Jubilee Line, putting these scenes at least fifteen years after the rest of the film) to see Billy dance in a production of ''Swan Lake''.
* DysfunctionalFamily: But they pull it together.
* JerkassBall: Billy, believe it or not. His slap to the other boy was utterly unprovoked; the boy was merely comforting him for not having got into the dance school. Granted, the other boy was InnocentlyInsensitive by not recognising that a working class boy like Billy wouldn't get another chance. On the other hand, Billy never apologised or was punished for being a brat.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Both Billy's father and brother.
* LamarckWasRight: Not in a mega superhero way, but still. Billy's paternal grandfather was apparently a really good boxer, which is why Billy's dad wants him to take it up. But Billy's maternal grandmother was also a fantastic ballet dancer when she was a young girl.
* AMinorKidroduction: Inverted. The story takes place in his childhood, but shows a brief moment of Billy's adult life.
* MissingMom: Billy Elliot suffers from dead mother syndrome.
* MistakenForGay: Billy probably isn't gay, but his love of ballet makes his dad fear he is.
* OopNorth: It may as well be the name of Billy's hometown. But for [[ViolentGlaswegian some reason]] his father's Glaswegian. Which actually in a way makes it more believable.
* ProtagonistTitle
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Billy and Michael, kind of. Billy is sensitive and into ballet, but the film takes pains to show him as quite conventionally masculine in some ways [[spoiler: (punching that boy at the auditions, for example).]] Michael, on the other hand, is CampGay and a WholesomeCrossdresser.
* TrainStationGoodbye: A Bus Station variant with family rather than lovers.
* UnconfessedUnemployment: Inverted. The Father can't tell his son [[spoiler: he's going back to work as a scab to earn the money Billy needs to audition for ballet school.]]
* VehicleVanish: Debbie manages to pull one off.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Billy doesn't want his father to be disappointed in him, which is why he hides the fact he's doing Ballet.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Michael.

!!The musical adaptation provides examples of:

* AllMusicalsAreAdaptations: Well this one sure is.
* AngryDance
* CounterpointDuet / DistantDuet: In "Solidarity," the ballet class scenes are intercut with scenes from the strike, with girls in tutus dancing in between cops swinging billy cubs and nightsticks. [[TropesAreNotBad It works well.]] They use different musical melodies.
* DisneyAcidSequence: In "Expressing Yourself", the song ends with a tapdancing sequence featuring giant moving dresses.
* DreamBallet: After Michael leaves in the Christmas scene, [[MyFutureSelfAndMe Billy dances with his future self]], to the Pas de Deux from ''Theatre/SwanLake'', before his older self fades away to reveal he is still in the miners' welfare.
* HailToTheThief: "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher".
* {{Meganekko}}: Tracy Anderson, if the live cinema version is to be believed.
* TheMusical
* PopStarComposer: EltonJohn wrote the music for the musical numbers, with the movie's screenwriter Lee Hall providing lyrics.
* PrecisionFStrike: From Debbie to Billy: "You look like a right dickhead to me." Even the PBS broadcast version, which censors the F and S words on a regular basis, left this one in.
* ScreenToStageAdaptation: Which is odd because while it is a film about dance ''Billy Elliot'' is not a musical.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Did a rousing, march-y CrowdSong by striking Northern miners, called "Solidarity", really need the repeated line "We're proud to be working class!"
* TookALevelInBadass: Grandma! From delusional sweet old lady to delusional sweet HILARIOUS old lady. Plus she runs down a hall with a knife. Sure, it was to open a letter, but still.