Film
Wish You Were Here
Other titles called Wish You Were Here: the 2012 film.
A 1987 British comedy-drama about a rebellious working-class girl coming of age in a cramped post-war seaside town. Emily Lloyd is fearless and filthy-mouthed as Lynda, a teenager in open defiance of her suffocating surroundings. Bawdy, tender, sometimes uncomfortable—it's a portrait of sexual awakening that refuses sentimentality.
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My Beautiful Laundrette1985
Stephen Frears directs this bracingly unsentimental look at sexuality, class, and belonging in 1980s London. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a career-early performance that crackles with danger.
But The narrative is deliberately fragmentary and the tone shifts between comedy and darkness in ways that can feel jarring.

Mona Lisa1986
Neil Jordan's film pairs Bob Hoskins with Cathy Tyson in a London underworld story that's sexually frank and emotionally complex. Grubby, smart, unexpectedly moving.
But The sex work at its centre means some of the material is explicit, and the mood is considerably darker than comedic.

Sid and Nancy1986
Alex Cox's punk-rock tragedy about the Sex Pistols bassist and his girlfriend. Visually wild, emotionally raw, capturing a moment when transgression felt like the only honest response.
But It's bleak and chaotic in ways that don't offer much comfort. Some viewers find it more self-indulgent than affecting.

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Meatballs1979
Both are about young people using humour and transgression as a way to claim space in institutions designed to contain them.
Bill Murray's summer-camp comedy seems like it has nothing to do with *Wish You Were Here*, but structurally it's about institutions constraining young people and the outsider comedy of watching them push back. Murray's anarchic energy mirrors Lloyd's refusal to be shaped by her surroundings, and the tone—goofy but with real warmth underneath—matches the film's balance.
But It's from a different world tonally: American, broad, and openly sentimental in places. The comparison only works if you're paying attention to structure rather than surface.

More like this (5)
Rita, Sue and Bob Too1987
Alan Clarke directs this comedy about two working-class girls and the married man who seduces them. Caustic, funny, and entirely devoid of moral hand-wringing about its subject.
But Released the same year, it's a natural comparison—some find it less subtle, and the sexual dynamic won't sit easy for everyone.

Dance with a Stranger1985
Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in Britain. A period film that's interested in female sexuality and agency rather than softening its protagonist.
But It's a slow, melancholic film about the lead-up to a tragedy. Gorgeous but deliberately unshowy in its emotional impact.

Absolute Beginners1986
Julien Temple's musical about London's 1950s youth culture and racial tensions. Visually dazzling and full of swagger, with a genuine interest in how young people remake the world.
But The musical numbers are polarising, and the film's tonal balance between romance and social commentary doesn't always land.

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid1987
Stephen Frears and Hanif Abdurrakhman collaborate on this London-set story of a mixed-race couple and their chaotic household. Sexually frank, politically engaged, genuinely funny.
But The deliberate shapelessness of the narrative frustrates some viewers. It prioritises mood and moment over traditional story structure.

The Killing of Sister George1968
Frank Alda's 1968 film is an earlier British oddity about sexuality and performance. A lesbian relationship and the television industry provide the setting for messy, uncomfortable drama.
But It's nearly twenty years older and feels it; some viewers find the handling of its subject matter dated, even if the core story remains provocative.

People
Cast
Emily LloydLynda Mansell
Tom BellEric
Jesse BirdsallDave
Clare CliffordMrs. Parfitt
Sheila KelleyJoan Figgis- Trudi CavanaghTap Dancing Lady
- Barbara DurkinValerie
Geoffrey HutchingsHubert Mansell- Charlotte BarkerGillian
- Chloe LelandMargaret
Pat HeywoodAunt Millie- Charlotte BallLynda Mansell (aged 11)
Directing
- David LelandDirector
- Libbie BarrScript Supervisor
Writing
- David LelandWriter
Production
- Sarah RadclyffeProducer