This is a Guardian review of Billy Liar, John Schlesinger's 1963 British comedy adapted from Keith Waterhouse's 1959 novel, part of the "Angry Young Man" literary movement alongside John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim. The critic praises Tom Courtenay's performance in the title role but expresses long-standing reservations about the film despite its celebrated reputation.

Courtenay plays Billy, a Yorkshire undertaker's clerk who escapes his dull existence through elaborate fantasies, chiefly imagining himself ruler of a fictional land called Ambrosia, while juggling reckless engagements to two women, Barbara and Rita, alongside his relationship with the alluring Liz, played by Julie Christie. Liz urges him to seek a new life in London, but Billy ultimately loses his nerve, an ending the reviewer finds tonally at odds with the character's comic, aspirational fantasies and out of step with the real-life trajectories of both Waterhouse and Courtenay. Despite this unresolved criticism, the reviewer concedes Courtenay's performance remains beautiful and singles him out as an actor still producing outstanding work today.