The Ploughman's Lunch is a 1983 British drama film written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre, starring Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry and Rosemary Harris.

He is commissioned to write a book on the Suez Crisis, claiming not to be a socialist; at that time, the Falklands War is dominating the British media.

Although James is persistent, he cannot get further than a late night kiss from her and so Jeremy suggests that he contact her mother, the prominent left-wing historian Ann Barrington, who lives in Norfolk and is married to the advertising film director Matthew Fox.

After learning that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary, James hopes to seduce the daughter by befriending the mother.

He finally has another Oxford friend, an up-and-coming young poet, call her to end the relationship, while he sits idly by reading advertisements in Exchange and Mart.

James Penfield is Jimmy Porter of Look Back in Anger updated to the 1980s, specifically to London during the 1982 Falkland war and the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.