"Having watched it again recently the scene with Jill Bennett in Trevor Howard's tent,(correction - it was aboard his luxury yacht) as one by one everyone else departs and it gets more and more obvious what he's after, seems to me incredibly reminiscent of the eating scene in Tom Jones. Does anyone else think this, or am I going nuts?"

They were both Woodfall films.

No, I don't think Tony Richardson was plagiarizing himself with this scene; it is far less effective than the eating scene in "Tom Jones," largely because it does not advance the plot the way the "Jomes" eating scene does. Remember also that there is an inference that Mrs. Waters (Tom's dining companion in the scene, played by Joyce Redman who got an Oscar nomination for her work in the movie) may have been Tom's mother.
Secondly, Jill Bennett has absolutely none of the sensuality in this scene that Joyce Redman projected. Jill was good at playing deeply troubled women, whole Joyce seemed to have fun in bed with anybody.

I read Fanny Duberly's diary from while she was there. She was definitely NOT like the character in the film. She didn't even like Cardigan all that much. She was very devoted to her husband.

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I've been watching it again as I'm working on an 11th Hussars costume for our next 'Victorian Valentine' event here but I must say the lovestories and the Duberleys really grated on me. I do wish there was a bit more voice-over, to get the internal thoughts of the characters and a bit more on the Sergeant Major who gets flogged because he won't spy on Nolan as well as the recruits. It seems that all we see is Metcalfe joining up, being trained and then dying of cholera. I felt the Clarissa/Nolan romance was terribly contrived - just wish they'd made Nolan the 'wise jedi guru' character instead of making him a romantic lead, but the worst of it was the Duberley pair, with Henry talking like Pontius Piwate who has a fwend Biggus Dicckus back in Wome and this Fanny Duberley an utterly shallow character who seems to represent the empty-headed public who viewed war as some sort of World Cup sporting match with more blood and fire. The Duberleys weren't as repellent as that were they?
DocM?
Tom516
"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."

• Pierre Rissient

Comedy relief.

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I agree: Richardson's ripping off his own work in 'Tom Jones'.
I found this pretty repellent, because in doing so he misrepresents Jill's character, Fanny Duberly, who was a real person and wasn't Cardigan's mistress. As one of the few officer's ladies in camp, she did attract gossip, but her letters and diaries attest that she was there because she thought her husband Henry couldn't manage without her!
cheers,
Doc M @ the Silver Whistle