![]() ![]() Under Helen Withers direction, the darkness of those desperate times are given full exposure –particularly when the scenes switch back to London and the cast switch roles and costumes with impressive speed. But although David Wood’s adaptation of Michelle Magorian’s novel is deeply touching, it is never allowed to become an ongoing gush. ![]() Is young Will going to be the son he never had? So far, so potentially sentimental. Keith Railton plays him like a character from Thomas Hardy, his Wessex drawl verging on a snarl initially before gradually melting into the voice of paternal concern. He is the village recluse, still brooding over the loss of his wife and baby in childbirth over 40 years ago. At first it seems that “Mr Tom” Oakley is not the most welcoming of hosts. He is also escaping from a brutal mother trying to bury her guilt under some fiercely fundamentalist form of Christianity. And not just because of the forthcoming aerial bombardment of docklands. Being an evacuee from south-east Londonin September, 1939, is something of a blessing for him. As we soon discover, there are also grey bruises beneath young Will’s clothes. It’s a grey mac, below which protrude baggy grey flannel “shorts” above grey socks. ![]() William Beech has been despatched from Deptford to Dorset with a label attached to his gabardine mac. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |