When I first watched the movie Withnail and I… I don’t remember when that was exactly, but several years ago… it was with great anticipation. I’d heard it quoted many times and people had mentioned it as a great film, but when I saw it for the first time I was a little underwhelmed. It was OK, but I didn’t really understand the fuss about it. The next time I watched it I enjoyed it more, and the third time I began to understand why people liked it. But then something strange happened the next time I watched it; I couldn’t make it all the way through and ended up switching it off. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood that time, but I started to think that maybe I actually don’t like it and I’d been trying too hard to enjoy it previously? Anyway, I didn’t watch it again for a few years, but the next time I did… wow! I finally “got” it. I’ve watched it several times since and it just keeps getting better.
So when I booked an AirBnB apartment for a long weekend in the Lake District and included in the information was that the phone box right at the end of the access road had appeared in a scene in the movie, I started looking at where else they may have filmed locally and found that most of the Lake District scenes were within a few miles of where I was staying, so I began planning to visit as many as possible.