Locke’s story “Ladies in Lavender” does not have a picnic. Dance thought better and wrote a beach picnic on the coast of Cornwall into his screenplay.
The story is simple. Ursula and Janet, spinster sisters, well on in years, live in a cottage by the sea near the small village near St. Madoc. One morning after a storm, they find a young man washed ashore. They nurse him back to health, Ursula treating him as a son she never had. Janet, the older sister, is more realistic.
Dance’s picnic is another step in Andrea’s restoration. Ursula and Janet’s motive is to get Andrea healthy by having him swim in the water, which he almost drowned. Ursula shouts, “Don’t go over your depth.” But while they look on, he pretends to drown again. The women panic. But he’s only joking. Ha, ha.
Though they bring along a wicker, their food and drink are spread out on the blanket; it’s untouched.
The cast: Judi Dench as Ursula Widdington; Maggie Smith as Janet Widdington; Daniel Brühl as Andrea Marowski
See Charles Dance. Ladies in Lavender (2004). Screenplay by Charles Dance based on William J. Locke’s story (1916); William J. Locke. Far-Away Stories. London: John Lane Co., 1916