Dutch Girls is a 1985 film, released by the London Weekend Television Company, produced by Sue Birtwistle, directed by Giles Foster, and written by William Boyd. The film is about a group of young men who go to Holland to play hockey. Along the way they drink, smoke, and try to have sex. It features many young actors: Colin Firth, Timothy Spall, Adrian Lukas, James Wilby.

Plot summary

Colin Firth plays Neil Truelove, a seventeen-year-old schoolboy trembling on the brink of manhood who schemes his way into his boarding school's hockey trip to Holland by weighing down his hockey stick with lead. Once he arrives, he is immediately exposed to the great 'mystery of life' - women. Neil meets a Dutch girl, Romelia, at hockey practice, and goes through all the variations of awkward phases as he starts to grow up. He encounters her again at a local discotheque, and they have a charming - and entirely innocent - evening together, in which Neil doesn't even get a goodnight kiss, for which he rebukes himself severely.

He exhibits extreme repression brought on by his sheltered upbringing, and the tendency of public school to squash independent thought or the spirit of adventure. He tries to be nonchalant - "fancy a dance?"- but can't quite pull it off. He does learn, eventually, to appreciate the independent spirit of Lyndon Baines, although this character at first sight is hardly a good advertisement for freedom of thought and action, with his gross vulgarity and unthinking behaviour.

Cast

• Colin Firth (Neil Truelove)
• Timothy Spall (Lyndon Baines Jellicoe)
• Bill Paterson (Mr Mole)
• James Wilby (Dundine)
• Adrian Lukis (Murray)
• Gusta Gerrtisen (Romelia)
• Sylvia Millecam (Greetje)
• Anne Wil Blankers (Mrs Van Der Merwe)
• Erik Plooyer (Mr Van Der Merwe)
• Richard Torn (Kees Van Der Merwe)
• Stephanie Verwijmeren (Anna Van Der Merwe)

External links