48 Fun Facts About Four Weddings and a Funeral

Who plays Charles, the perpetually late best man, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Hugh Grant has said he was ready to give up acting when the script arrived, and he won the part only after the producers had seen some 70 other actors.

Who plays Carrie, the American Charles keeps meeting, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Andie MacDowell was in London publicising Groundhog Day when she read the script, which she has called one of the best she had ever come across.

Rowan Atkinson plays what kind of character in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

A bumbling vicar: Father Gerald is still training for the priesthood at the first wedding, then stumbles through his first service at the second, invoking the 'Holy Goat'.

Which band's cover of 'Love Is All Around' for Four Weddings and a Funeral topped the UK singles chart?

Wet Wet Wet's version stayed at number one for 15 weeks, and Richard Curtis later sent it up as 'Christmas Is All Around', the comeback single of ageing rocker Billy Mack in Love Actually.

Which Four Weddings and a Funeral character dies of a heart attack during a wedding speech?

Gareth collapses as the groom speaks at the third wedding, and his funeral leads Charles to see that he and Matthew were the one truly married couple among the friends.

Whose poem 'Funeral Blues' does Matthew recite at the funeral in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

W. H. Auden wrote it for a 1936 play and later reworked it as a cabaret song; after the film, a slim pamphlet of ten of his poems became a bestseller.

How does the bride react when Charles admits at the altar that he loves someone else in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Punches him, flooring the groom in front of the whole congregation; the friends are next seen picking over the fiasco at his flat, where Carrie turns up to apologise.

Charles's brother David in Four Weddings and a Funeral, played by David Bower, is what?

Deaf like David Bower, the actor who plays him, David halts the fourth wedding by signing, for Charles to translate aloud, that he suspects the groom loves someone else.

Whom does Charles nearly marry at the fourth wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Henrietta, the ex-girlfriend who earlier warned him he was turning into a 'serial monogamist', is last seen in the closing photo montage marrying an Army officer.

At the UK premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Elizabeth Hurley wore a famous black dress by which designer?

Versace lent it as a favour after several other labels had turned the then little-known Hurley down.

What does Charles propose to Carrie at the end of Four Weddings and a Funeral?

A lifetime together without marriage: he asks whether she might agree not to marry him, and to go on not being married to him for the rest of her life, and she answers 'I do'.

Who plays Fiona, the aristocratic friend secretly in love with Charles, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Kristin Scott Thomas won one of the film's four BAFTAs; her Fiona finally tells Charles she has loved him for years on the day the woman he loves marries another man.

Who directed Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Mike Newell picked the script up in his agent's office, where an assistant told him it was really funny and that he should do it; he read it and found she was 'absolutely bang on'.

In the final scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Carrie tells Charles she hadn't noticed what?

The rain is hammering down when she asks 'Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed', a much-mocked line the actress defends: her character, she says, was too in love to think about the weather.

Which actor plays the flamboyant friend whose death brings the funeral in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Simon Callow has said he was grateful that, with AIDS rampant in 1994, his character was a joyful gay man who died, as he puts it, of Scottish dancing.

Who plays Matthew, who recites a poem at the funeral in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

John Hannah trained as an electrician and had never thought of acting until a workmate urged him to try drama school.

Elizabeth Hurley's famous dress at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere was held together by what?

Gold safety pins, oversized and running down each side of the black gown, drew gasps from the premiere crowd and helped launch the little-known Hurley to international fame.

Which band first recorded 'Love Is All Around', the song covered for Four Weddings and a Funeral, in 1967?

The Troggs' singer Reg Presley wrote it in about ten minutes after watching a Salvation Army band on television, and later spent royalties from the hit cover on researching crop circles.

What is the name of Carrie's wealthy Scottish fiancé in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Hamish Banks, the older politician Carrie marries at the third wedding, 'wasn't the man for me after all', as she tells Charles when she turns up at the fourth.

Chester, the man Scarlett falls for at Carrie's wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral, comes from where?

Texas is where Scarlett assumes he has gone back to, until Chester appears at the fourth wedding and tells her 'Without you, never'; the closing montage shows them married.

The director of Four Weddings and a Funeral later made which Harry Potter film?

Goblet of Fire, the fourth film, made him the first British director of the series; he took over because Alfonso Cuarón had chosen to direct only one.

Which film beat Four Weddings to Best Picture?

Forrest Gump won, though Richard Curtis recalls a nanosecond of hope on the night: the presenter began 'Fff…', and for a moment it could have been Four Weddings.

In the closing photo montage of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fiona is pictured beside whom?

Prince Charles: after pining for one Charles all through the film, Fiona turns up in the final montage beside another, the then heir to the throne.

Which British production company found the funding that finally got Four Weddings and a Funeral made?

Working Title found the money after the first backers pulled out in 1992; the producer believes the delay improved the film, because the script kept being talked through and tightened.

For a tamer cut sought by its American distributor, the sweary opening of Four Weddings was reshot using which word?

Bugger took the place of the F-word after the film's American backers faxed warnings that the swearing would keep it off US television, so the opening was reshot for a family-friendly cut.

Which comedy star co-created the 2019 Hulu series based on Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Mindy Kaling wrote it with Matt Warburton, moving the story to four American friends reunited in London, with Richard Curtis on board as an executive producer.

Who plays Tom, Fiona's amiable brother, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

James Fleet's Tom says he never expected 'the thunderbolt', only a nice girl who liked the look of him, until it strikes as he seats his distant cousin Deirdre at the fourth wedding.

Richard Curtis, the writer of Four Weddings, was born in which country?

New Zealand: he was born in Wellington, but his father's business career kept the family moving from country to country before they settled in Britain.

The Four Weddings hit fell a week short of whose run at number one?

Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at number one with his Robin Hood ballad; the band covering Love Is All Around stopped a week short of matching him by deleting their own single from sale.

Four Weddings was so cash-strapped that its extras supplied what?

Formal clothes came out of the extras' own wardrobes after $1.2 million was cut from the budget just before filming, which also squeezed the whole shoot into 36 days.

What was the 2019 Comic Relief sequel to Four Weddings called?

One Red Nose Day and a Wedding finds Charles and Carrie, 25 years on, as parents of a bride: their daughter marries another woman, the pair played by Lily James and Alicia Vikander.

In 1994, which blockbuster kept Four Weddings and a Funeral from becoming the UK's highest-grossing film ever?

Jurassic Park kept its UK record until 1998, when it was finally beaten not by another Hollywood blockbuster but by a second low-budget British comedy, The Full Monty.

In 1994, which film did Four Weddings and a Funeral overtake to become the highest-grossing British film?

A Fish Called Wanda is the comedy a Danish audiologist reportedly died laughing at in 1989; Four Weddings kept its own record until The Full Monty passed it in 1997.

What did Richard Curtis first call Four Weddings and a Funeral, before the funeral was added?

Four Weddings and a Honeymoon was the plan until his best friend told him to 'go deep' and, for once in his life, write something with some meaning.

Which actor did Richard Curtis favour to play Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral, though he would not audition?

Alan Rickman had impressed Curtis in Close My Eyes but didn't want to audition, and when writer, director and producer voted on the lead, Curtis lost two to one.

Four Weddings grew from a wedding where its writer did what?

Spurned a guest who made advances and regretted it ever after; he says he began the script after counting how many weddings he had sat through, more than 60 in little over a decade.

Which future Home Secretary is credited as 'Aristocracy Coordinator' on Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Amber Rudd earned the credit by rounding up titled acquaintances, the Earl of Woolton among them, to fill the pews as unpaid or barely paid wedding guests.

The leading man of Four Weddings and a Funeral struggled with what throughout filming?

Hay fever dogged him because so much was shot outdoors in the summer heat; he later recalled battling it through one boiling day of wedding scenes after another.

Who plays Scarlett, the hero's eccentric flatmate, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Charlotte Coleman won a BAFTA nomination and international recognition as Scarlett, but died after an asthma attack in 2001, aged 33, so the character is missing from the 2019 reunion.

A walkout at the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in which US city followed its sweary opening scene?

Salt Lake City hosted the Sundance premiere, where about 30 town councillors, serious Mormons in Richard Curtis's telling, stood up and walked out during the first two minutes.

Which novelist friend's advice led Richard Curtis to add the funeral to Four Weddings?

Helen Fielding told him to go deep and, for once, write something with some meaning; he went on to co-write the screenplay of her Bridget Jones's Diary.

Which 1999 romantic comedy reunited the writer, producer and leading man of Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Notting Hill reunited them five years on, though the writer had at first voted against casting his leading man in Four Weddings.

Before Four Weddings and a Funeral, Richard Curtis was best known for co-writing which BBC sitcom?

Blackadder, his sitcom with Rowan Atkinson and Ben Elton, made his name; he had also co-founded Comic Relief, the charity for which he reunited the Four Weddings cast in 2019.

Which actress was originally cast as Carrie in Four Weddings and a Funeral before dropping out?

Jeanne Tripplehorn had to withdraw after a death in her family; the part was also offered to Marisa Tomei, who turned it down because her grandfather was ill.

Duncan Kenworthy made Four Weddings and a Funeral while on leave from his job at which company?

Jim Henson Productions, home of the Muppets, employed him as a senior executive; the film he took leave to make earned him a Best Picture nomination.

Charles's friends in Four Weddings and a Funeral call one of his ex-girlfriends by which unkind nickname?

Duckface is Fiona's name for her, as she well knows, but she has the last laugh: it is she who diagnoses Charles as a 'serial monogamist' who never lets anyone near him.

The American distributor of Four Weddings and a Funeral wanted the title changed, fearing it would put off whom?

Men, one executive argued, would rather do anything than sit through four weddings back to back; rejected alternatives included True Love and Near Misses and Loitering in Sacred Places.

Around 200 guests at the British premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral arrived wearing what?

Wedding dresses were Richard Curtis's idea for the Leicester Square premiere; the producer remembers a thrill in the air, Curtis remembers people having to let their old dresses out.