CHOSEN as this year's Royal Film Performance, David Parfitt's comedy examines the clash of cultures when an arrogant American star descends on a sleepy English village.

Ageing Hollywood actor Jefferson Steel (Burt Reynolds) has no work and is desperate to revive his flagging career. Badgering his Los Angeles agent for a high profile comeback, Jefferson is delighted to land the Holy Grail of stage roles: King Lear in a Royal Shakespeare Company production at Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Hollywood has-been gets a rude awakening when he discovers that he has actually been contracted to tread the boards with the amateur dramatic society based in the close-knit village of Stratford St John in leafy Suffolk.