Charles Sturridge’s strawberry picnic in Brideshead Revisited is mainly faithful to Waugh’s novel. With Sebastian Flyte’s encouragement, Sebastian easily gets Charles to cut class at Oxford for a day in the country. He announces, “I’ve got a motor car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Chateau Peyraguey—which isn’t a wine you’ve ever tasted, so don’t pretend. It’s heaven with strawberries.” Charles later agrees, “They were delicious together.”
It’s an idyllic picnic, particularly for Sebastian, whose life is always messy. He’s also homosexual and is attracted to Charles, who is straight.
While Charles moons, the slightly drunk Sebastian looks up at the sky, remarking (mainly to himself), “Just the place to bury a crock of gold,” he says, “I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then when I was old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.”
Featured Image: Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder; Anthony Andrews as Sebastian Flyte; and Aloysius as Sebastian’s teddy bear is on the left.
See Evelyn Waugh. Brideshead Revisited. London: Chapman and Hall, 1945; Charles Sturridge. Brideshead Revisited (1981). The screenplay by John Mortimer is based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel (1945), Julian Jarrold. Brideshead Revisited (2008). Screenplay by Andrew Davies and Jeremy Brock based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel (1945)