Sightlines · reception
How A Taste of Honey was received
1961 · Tony Richardson · A Taste of Honey on Sightlines
The arc
A hit in its own moment — four BAFTAs including Best British Film — it has since been canonized as one of the crown jewels of the British New Wave, with the reappraisal increasingly crediting teenage playwright Shelagh Delaney's voice as much as Tony Richardson's direction.
What’s debated
Film fans still argue over authorship — whether this is really Richardson's film or Delaney's — and whether it's the true peak of the kitchen-sink cycle over Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
Its footprint
Its afterlife runs straight through The Smiths: Morrissey idolized Shelagh Delaney, put her on Smiths sleeve art, and lifted lines from A Taste of Honey into songs like 'Reel Around the Fountain' — 'I dreamt about you last night, fell out of bed twice' comes from Delaney.
Where it stands
A kitchen-sink essential and Letterboxd-era rediscovery — the British New Wave entry people push on you first, partly because a woman's story makes it feel decades ahead of its blokey peers.
Did you know? Rita Tushingham, a complete unknown plucked from an open audition for her screen debut, went to Cannes 1962 and won Best Actress — with co-star Murray Melvin taking Best Actor for the same film.