Bella and the Boys

This probably marked the debut of Billie Piper, as a serious actress. Set around children "in care" it follows Bella through adolescence into adulthood. The story is brilliantly written and all the major characters are totally convincing, and manages to avoid a traditional "happy ending", showing life as it really is rather than as some TV producers would like us to believe it is.

Perhaps the only fault is the overly saintly care home manager, but her character is essential to Bella's development and to the denouement.

The programme also features Lenora Crichlow of Channel 4's "Sugar Rush" as another of the residents of Bella's care home.

When British television makes dramas as well-written, well-produced and well-acted as this, it is at its best, and proves that it can still be a world leader in quality drama.

As someone previously involved in the care system, I recommend this to everyone. Not a programme to please Daily Mail readers!

13 years after Bella, Martin and Lee were there, the manager of their children's home is retiring and the home being shutdown. As they meet up together at a reunion/retirement celebration it sparks old memories of their time together at the home. Both Martin and Lee fancy Bella and their relationship are very involved. The reunion brings back memories of their youth as well as truths about what has happened since.

Shown on BBC2 as part of the `taking care' season of programme, this drama is not really trying to make points about the care system but rather using it as a setting for this story. The plot is pretty good, moving seamlessly back and forward from 1990 to the present day while still keeping a strong narrative flow within the film. The story is mostly a story and love of sorts and is involving because the characters are good. Only towards the end did I feel the film tried to cover too much ground in too short at times - with too many loose ends being tied up a little too quickly. Aside from that it does well and is interesting.

The characters are well drawn and realistic for the majority of the film and this is mostly due to the fine performances drawn from the cast. Their dialogue is natural and realistic but their performances really use it well. Cunliffe is understated but plays a good role despite his character being a bit wishy-washy. Burke is good and deals with the changing character and difficult emotions of Lee well, however it is Piper who really impressed me. More famous in the UK for being married to Chris Evans (oh, and once being a pop star) I didn't expect very much from her in the old acting stakes but she does very well. She is natural and forceful in her role and she really drives the film from the middle.

Overall this is a good film that is driven by a character based story that is well scripted apart from a rush job at the end to bring us up to date. The cast do a really good job with the characters to tell a story that it is hard not to get involved in.