Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs. The semi-comical story is about William Fisher, a working-class young man living with his parents in the fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire. Bored by his job as a lowly clerk for an undertaker, Billy spends his time indulging in fantasies and dreams of life in London as a comedy writer.
Adaptations (2)
Billy Liar has been adapted 2 times, across film and television series, from 1963 to 1973.
Billy Liar1963 · film · 98 min · dir. John Schlesinger · IMDb ↗A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
Billy Liar1973 · television series · 30 min · IMDb ↗IMDb7.4ITV sitcom about an imaginative young man. 26 episodes (2 series), 1973 - 1974. Stars Jeff Rawle, George A. Cooper, Pamela Vezey, May Warden and others.
