Hi, I'm watching a parody of the film Brief Encounter. The man who plays Dr. Alec Harvey says that his wife is "a bit of an old trouser." What does he mean by that? The woman who plays Laura Jesson comments that he doesn't sound like he cares for his wife very much. Alec then follows his statement by saying that "she can be rather vicious and she takes drugs." Thank you!
An equal stab in the dark, but, given that it from 'Brief Encounter' I suspect that the man is saying that his wife likes to be in charge - to dominate the household: to wear the trousers : to be the dominant member of a household. "Oh yes! He may be a lion-tamer, afraid of nothing, but at home it is his wife who wears the trousers."
Susanna, is it the Victoria Wood parody? If so, I've just watched it, and what the man actually says is "My wife's a bit of an old trout, I'm afraid".
Phrases old trout informal an annoying or bad-tempered old woman. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/trout
To be honest, I'm not sure how I'd distinguish between the various terms for "disagreeable old woman", sdg. For me, "old trout" conjures up images of pursed lips (ie someone sour-faced), but that might be just me.... That said, unlike (say) "old bat", I can't imagine anyone using "old trout" today, unless they wanted to sound deliberately old-fashioned - which was, of course, the case in this skit.
