In the 1996 movie Secrets & Lies, starring Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Blethyn’s East London character says of someone unfamiliar: I wouldn’t know him if he stood up in my soup! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Wouldn’t Know Them if They Stood in My Soup”
I recently watched the movie Secrets and Lies with the fabulous Brenda Blethen and the exquisite Marianne Jean-Baptiste. It was made in 1996 and the movie’s a real delight.
And Brenda Blethen’s character is a woman from East London and at one point in the film she’s talking about someone she wouldn’t recognize and she says, “I wouldn’t know him if he stood up in my soup.”
And of course, I just
Had to stop the film and write that down because I absolutely love that phrase and apparently it’s not just unique to the movie. thats That’s a phrase that you’ll sometimes hear. I wouldn’t know them if they stood up in my soup. I love it right in your face.
It’s funny that you should mentioned Brenda Bluffin. I just started watching Vera, which she’s wonderful in. She plays a, I guess, a high energy police detective whose life isn’t really all together in order.
But she’s great at getting to the heart of the matter. So it’s very good. Lots of energy.
She’s got lots of energy, pet.
Lots of, yeah. She always calls her a pet.
Yeah. In our house, we’re halfway through that series as well. And that’s exactly why we went back and looked at Secrets and Lies, which also, interestingly enough, has a very young Phyllis Logan, who people might recognize from Downton Abbey. She’s Mrs. Hughes there.
Well, I see that you and I are getting our British English straight from the source.
You know, we love to hear from our UK callers as much as our English speakers and speakers of other languages anywhere in the world. You can always send us email, words@waywordradio.org, or talk to us on Twitter @wayword.
