Withnail & I - Original Ending/Sequel

The key reason why a Withnail and I sequel is off the cards is due to the original ending. In it, Withnail gets having said his goodbyes to Marwood and drinks a shotgun full of Margeaux before blowing his brains out. Not surprisingly, this original ending was shelved for being too 'dark'.

You can learn more about this and a zillion other Withnail and I facts by grabbing a copy of the BFI Modern Classics book or Bruce Robinson's original screenplay.

The filmed ending consists of Withnail delivering a wine-enhanced soliloquy from The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, which we are very pleased to publish in its full glory below.

I have of late - but wherefore I know not - lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilential congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither.
Act II, Scene II