I think I first watched this film when I was about 12 and I have to say that I find it just as charming and endearing today as I did then.
I can so easily imagine my Mother & Father, Aunties and Uncles, when they were younger, in situations and having conversations very similar to those depicted here by the extremely talented actors.
It's a childhood that kids of the current generation will never know or understand and I still don't know if that's for the better. I certainly hope, if I'm ever lucky enough to have a child, that I find the balance between the old style of growing up and the new.
After a while you don't even notice than Dame Helen Mirren in one of her earlier roles is playing a child of about ten and even Michael Elphick, who has always looked about 50 to me, is so convincing as a child that it just works beautifully. I think that's partly because, in your subconscious you know that they aren't ten year olds and partly because of the great writing too. It provides a lovely humour and a quaint snapshot of a childhood full of imagination and no iPads.
Dennis Potter is clearly a very skilled writer and it's obvious that the team gathered to produce this with him are all incredibly good at their jobs too.
A classic forever.
It's a childhood that kids of the current generation will never know or understand and I still don't know if that's for the better. I certainly hope, if I'm ever lucky enough to have a child, that I find the balance between the old style of growing up and the new.
After a while you don't even notice than Dame Helen Mirren in one of her earlier roles is playing a child of about ten and even Michael Elphick, who has always looked about 50 to me, is so convincing as a child that it just works beautifully. I think that's partly because, in your subconscious you know that they aren't ten year olds and partly because of the great writing too. It provides a lovely humour and a quaint snapshot of a childhood full of imagination and no iPads.
Dennis Potter is clearly a very skilled writer and it's obvious that the team gathered to produce this with him are all incredibly good at their jobs too.
A classic forever.