Tom Courtenay as Billy Fisher in Billy Liar

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Tom Courtenay as Billy Fisher in Billy Liar

Michael ffolkes (1925-1988)

Price

£650

Signed

Signed and inscribed with title

Medium

Ink with watercolour

Dimensions

8 ½ x 9 ½ inches

Provenance

The Estate of Michael Bateman

Illustrated

Punch, 28 August 1963, page 320

Exhibited

'The Illustrators: The British Art of Illustration 1807-2026' Chris Beetles Gallery, London, November 2026-January 2027, no 173

A British comedy-drama, based on Keith Waterhouse’s 1959 novel, Billy Liar premiered in August 1963 and follows Billy Fisher, a Yorkshire undertaker’s clerk who escapes his boring working-class life through compulsive lying and vivid daydreams of ruling the imaginary country of Ambrosia. The film starred Tom Courtenay in the title role, who had understudied Albert Finney in the West End adaptation of the novel in 1960.

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