Withnail and I is a 1987 British
black comedy film written and directed by
Bruce Robinson. Based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed young actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by
Richard E. Grant and
Paul McGann) who live in a squalid flat in
Camden Town in 1969 while squandering their finances on alcohol. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the
Lake District belonging to Withnail's lecherous gay uncle Monty and drive there. The holiday is less recuperative than they expected.