Comfort and Joy

Director Bill Forsyth followed the enormously successful Local Hero with this bittersweet comedy about a radio DJ who becomes embroiled in a turf war between rival ice cream vendors.

Alan ‘Dicky’ Bird (Bill Paterson) is a radio DJ who, despite his semi-glamorous job, is moping over the recent departure of his girlfriend and longs for a new direction. After following an attractive ice cream vendor, Charlotte (Clare Grogan), he becomes unwittingly embroiled in a turf war between two rival ice cream businesses, both gunning for the same Glasgow patch. Using his status as a local celebrity Bird acts as mediator between the two factions, hoping to win Charlotte’s heart.

Comfort and Joy was writer-director Bill Forsyth’s follow-up to the enormously successful Local Hero, and the film successfully continues the bittersweet comic formula, enhanced by Chris Menges’ picturesque photography and music by Mark Knopfler.