Is there any mention in the book/screenplay as to why the character Peter had a glass eye?
In the film Helen-the mother-is said to be 40 years old & it is mentioned how she is 8 years older than Peter which must make him 32 then (born 1929)
In the film he says he "lost an eye in the war" but he would have been a little young for active service.
Can anyone help?
In the play Peter wears an eye patch rather than has a glass eye. The play is set in 1959, which again would make Peter a little young for active service, but I think it is possibly meant to point out Peter's wheedling nature. He has probably told Helen he lost the eye in combat to impress her, and now has to keep up the story. It's part of Peter's sense of being a man which causes him to mock Geoff later on and try to assume control when he says to Helen "Don't you wag your bloody finger at me".
shareHe just said that he lost it in the war.
He didn't say he was in combat.
So many people on the homefront in England during the war were injured from bombs, the blackout, and other war related injuries.
He was such a bounder does it not make sense that he would simply lie, i.e. tell a useful story rather than the truth.
Does anyone know if there is a DVD of this film available for America?
I think the implication is that he was probably a black marketeer, or 'spiv' (of which there were many here during the War, usually of Peter's type of man). Jo would doubtless have met many of these and probably made an assumption that Peter had managed to avoid the fighting in some way (and probably right!).
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