User Reviews

I saw this only once, on its original broadcast, but it has stayed with me. It's a beautiful, simple evocation of childhood set in 1950s working-class Scotland, particularly good on the strangeness of the grown-ups' world seen through the eyes of the little boy (main character). There are several outstanding sequences - the little boy listening to his Communist-supporting father decry the Royal family as "...parasites", and his teacher's horror when he innocently repeats this. Also when the mother and neighbours set up a show with the children on the back courts - wonderfully observed. The albino man does seem strange and alien to the boys and the paranoia evoked by the 'red menace', translated as 'invaders from outer space' by the wee boys, captures the period perfectly, as well as saying something about how our ideas and opinions get formed. Great performances all round too. Well worth seeing - I wish I could find this on DVD.

I saw this when it was first broadcast and (unusually for me) had the presence of mind to commit it to videotape. It's one of those little gems that inexplicably stays with you and although the tape is extremely worn now I never tire of watching this. Set in a working class community in Scotland at the end of the 1950s it is a beautiful examination of idiotic adult divisions, social, religious, political and sexual, as seen through the eyes of Billy, an incredulous but obviously intelligent small boy. Billy and his somewhat less sensitive chums seem to pick up the multi-faceted bigotry, anger and paranoia of the surrounding grown-ups and distill this cocktail into their fear of a local shy and light-averse albino man, who they gradually convince themselves, is an alien from outer space. There are many endearing and poignant scenes in this film, and many to laugh at, not only for those of us who happen to have been young working class children at that time, but also perhaps because it (everso gently) prods us to think about some of our own irrational attitudes that, despite a liberal education, may yet linger on. The climax, especially Billy's final line, is worth the wait. I don't know if the author ever had any other work filmed - I'd love to be enlightened. Bring this out on DVD - whoever you are!

I remember,I was very young when I saw a video of this my parents were watching,on the label on the tape was called (THE PLAY),so I watched it loads and was always calling it this when telling friends about it.I then moved out of my childhood house and my dad binned tape,so I wrote to the bbc to see if they were able to direct me in how I could get a copy,but they wrote back and said there was nothing they could do ,as they no longer had any copy in archive as it was originally a play.I went on to work in Pumpherston were Im lead to believe 1 of the boys in this lived briefly and got talking to a guy who knew this movie and was friends with him back then also.He amazingly then managed to get this on dvd for me,so still able to watch this and show mates all these years later.When going by the catholic school bit was just amazing,

Brilliant, brilliant film. I didn't see this when it was first shown on television but when it was repeated a friend recommended it so I caught up with it. It captures childhood so well, the way in which children know things but can't make sense of them because the gaps haven't been filled in yet. The audience can see perfectly well what is happening with the adults but the children can't. The child actors are so good and the setting isn't glamourised, 1950s Scotland as I remember it. It's one of those pieces that is so vivid one immediately suspects it's biographical, although of course it may not be.

I taped it off the TV and watched it again and again, but I've given away my VCR so I wish they would release it on DVD, or that the BBC would show it again so that I could record it onto DVD. It's a genuine classic.

I lived in West Calder where this film was set from i was a 10 year old laddie, i was close childhood friends with Craig Smith who played Alex in the film and the film stirs some wonderful memories. I remember the scene where the Billy Hartman character discuss' the US / USSR arms race while the boys discuss who's building the biggest bonefire, perfect analogy. The street scenes were filmed in Methil , fife , however the landscape scenes were shot in the cauther, polbeth countryside. A top notch film that really resonates through the generations, the values , innocence , naivety, interests of the characters were were not dissimilar to ours growing up in the 80s and early 90s. I moved away from west calder when i was 16 but will never forget the great times i had there and i associate the film with those times , , , i wish i had pink eyes.