The Clandestine Marriage is a British comedy film directed by Christopher Miles and starring Nigel Hawthorne, Joan Collins, Timothy Spall and Tom Hollander. It is based on the 1766 play The Clandestine Marriage by David Garrick and George Colman.
Can lovestruck Lovewell (Paul Nicholls), a humble clerk, win the fair hand of Fanny (Natasha Little), the youngest daughter of Lovewell’s employer, Sir Robert Sterling (Timothy Spall)? Preoccupied with social climbing, Sir Robert and his snooty sister Lady Heidelberg (Joan Collins) are busy planning the wedding of Fanny’s older sister Betsy (Emma Chambers) to Sir John Ogleby (Tom Hollander), the doltish son of prominent Lord Ogleby (Nigel Hawthorne). Lord Ogleby, who’s secretly insolvent, welcomes the merger of Sterling money and Ogleby class. Meanwhile, fickle Sir John, shifting his affections, enlists Lovewell’s aid in courting… Fanny. Poor Lovewell is understandably distressed by this sudden change in affairs, since, unbeknownst to the Sterling family, he and Fanny have already wed! To make matters worse, in requesting Lord Ogleby’s intervention on his own behalf, Lovewell mistakenly gives the aging roue the impression that Fanny’s in love with the Lord himself! Based on the classic Restoration play by David Garrick and George Coleman the Elder.