FILM · 1992 · UK
Peter's Friends
23 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (23)
- #001
Several members of the prominent cast attended Cambridge University together. Sir Stephen Fry, Dame Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery were all members of the Cambridge Footlights amateur dramatic club.
- #002
Peter Morton owns an Apple Macintosh computer but no television. Sir Stephen Fry was the second person in the United Kingdom to buy a Mac PC, after Douglas Adams bought the first two.
- #003
Hugh Laurie wrote Roger's coffee music.
- #004
Phyllida Law (Vera) is Dame Emma Thompson's mother and, at the time the film was shot, the mother-in-law of producer and director Kenneth Branagh (Andrew).
- #005
The entire opening scene, which includes dancing, backstage banter and a final toast, was shot in a single continuous take lasting four minutes.
- #006
At one point Andrew and Peter discuss having once thought of writing a play together but never doing so. Fourteen years after this film's release, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Sir Stephen Fry worked together on The Magic Flute (2006).
- #007
It was shot in only ten days.
- #008
According to Sir Stephen Fry, he and Hugh Laurie were initially very hesitant about appearing in this film, because they could only imagine how critics would react to such a meta-cast of the two of them and Dame Emma Thompson's old university friends. It was producer and director Sir Kenneth Branagh who set such concerns aside and encouraged them to join.
- #009
It was originally written for an American cast, but the setting was moved to England when producer and director Sir Kenneth Branagh joined the production. Ironically, Branagh had just finished Dead Again (1991), a role that had required him to master an American accent.
- #010
Peter and Andrew's old stage play includes the joke "I've never fallen in love. I've stepped in it a few times…", which is taken from writer Rita Rudner's stand-up routine.
- #011
Apparently the first draft of the screenplay was written in only five days.
- #012
Co-screenwriters Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman were married, as were stars Dame Emma Thompson and Sir Kenneth Branagh, though the latter couple later divorced.
- #013
The film was selected for inclusion in the US National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1992 list at the 64th National Board of Review Awards, where it placed eighth.
- #014
Phyllida Law, Imelda Staunton, Richard Briers, Alex Lowe, Dame Emma Thompson and Sir Kenneth Branagh all appeared in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), also directed by Branagh and drawing on much of the same team.
- #015
Imelda Staunton and Dame Emma Thompson appeared in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Nanny McPhee (2005) and the Harry Potter film series.
- #016
The film is set on 31 December 1982 and between 30 December 1992 and 1 January 1993.
- #017
Ann Davies (Brenda) was Richard Briers's (Lord Morton) wife.
- #018
Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie also played a married couple in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
- #019
The opening title sequence consists of a series of video clips from the 1980s, mainly featuring world leaders of that decade such as US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Ironically, it also includes a clip of businessman Donald Trump, who would become US president decades later.
- #020
Sir Stephen Fry and Tony Slattery appeared on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988).
- #021
The name of the train station stop where a few friends got off to go to Peter Morton's (Sir Stephen Fry) house was "Old Marsden".
- #022
Sir Stephen Fry (Peter Morton), Tony Slattery (Brian) and Phyllida Law (Vera) appeared in Kingdom (2007).
- #023
Toward the end of the film, after Andrew's drunken speech, he apologizes to Roger and says he will not blame Roger if he never speaks to Andrew again. Interestingly, this film was the last time Sir Kenneth Branagh and Hugh Laurie appeared on screen together (as of February 2020).
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