Everyone has seen Sweetnight Goodheart - but did you know it was part of a group of short films shown on the BBC in 2003 under the title Ways to Leave Your Lover. The Independent called it a smartly worked comedy. This is the press release from the BBC, March 6, 2003:
Ways To Leave Your Lover
How many of us have thought about it, lost sleep over it, chickened out of it, sweated over it, practically bitten our nails to the bone over it and made ourselves sick over it? The answer is, at one time or another, most of us will experience the agony of trying to find a way to leave a lover.
BBC TWO tells us how it's done in a series of five films starring Douglas Henshall, Emma Fielding, and Kate Ashfield amongst others.
Themes of love, infidelity and the end of an affair are explored in Ways To Leave Your Lover, five films written and directed by some of the UK's most talented artists.
Sweetnightgoodheart, Unscrew, Stag, Dog and Dumping Elaine each take an uncompromising look at what happens to people at the moment they leave each other and the ramifications of individual actions as relationships fall apart.
Taken as a whole the films are a harsh and viciously funny exploration of the human condition and the nature of love and loss.
Each writer/ director has proven his or her worth in a variety of different fields, and each 10 minute short film serves to reinforce the fierce talent and versatility of Dan Zeff (Linda Green, At Home With The Braithwaites), Clara Glynn (Ichmein), Ian Iqbal Rashid (This Life), Andrea Arnold and Peter Lydon (Hearts and Bones, Teachers).
From Sundance to Venice, each film has trodden the path of the festival circuit and each comes home in the wake of considerable critical acclaim.
Jeremy Howe, Executive Producer, said: "Mention the title Ways To Leave Your Lover and I would guess that a fleeting moment of recollection and then probably guilt will pass across the face of whoever you are with.
"We've all done it badly - and here are five short films that catch that awful, funny, painful ridiculous moment. The five writers / directors have all responded to the title in different ways - farcically, bizarrely, unexpectedly, disturbingly and optimistically. We have all been there."
Hilary Salmon, Executive Producer said: "The directors' imaginations were stimulated by the sheer drama innate in the series title. The result is five dramatic gems in miniature."
David Thompson, Head of BBC Films and Executive Producer said: "Ways To Leave Your Lover is a real testament to the wealth of talent at work in this country today, with each short demonstraing the diversity and individuality of the writers and directors involved in this project."
Ways To Leave Your Lover. BBC TWO, Tuesday 25 March 2003, 11.20pm-12.10am