O Diário de Anne Frank

I love a good TV drama, and The Diary of Anne Frank is that. Along with Occupation, it was one of the highlights of 2009, having been profoundly moved and disturbed by the events detailed in Anne Frank's diary since I was a little girl in primary school, this was a harrowing, poignant, sensitive and wonderfully acted mini-series that stayed true to the book. The mini-series is exquisite to look at, stunning costumes and settings, and the house was exactly like the house in real life. The writing is unusually sensitive, I never felt the mini-series got overly-dramatic or overly-sentimental, quite the opposite, and I think the writing really helped with that. The direction is excellent, and the music is haunting and evocative. It was the acting though where the Diary of Anne Frank really soared. Ellie Kendrick, instead of the obnoxious teenager she could have been, made for an intelligent yet somewhat lively Anne, very like the Anne in the book. Iain Glen is charming as the perfect father figure and Tamsin Grieg is luminous and quiet as the mother. Lesley Sharp is exceptional as Petronella, a selfish and independent matriarch, her actions were very entertaining. Then there is the sudden discovery, even for those who had read the book it was emotional, intense and sudden. Overall, this is a brilliant mini-series, in my opinion it is a must see! 10/10 Bethany Cox

''The Diary of Anne'' (2009) is an accurate adaption of Anne Frank's diary. It's a very nice movie. I am very much interested about Anne Frank and I've seen six movies about Anne Frank. The 2009 adaption of Anne's diary is a fine one. Although it is not as excellent as ''Anne Frank: The Whole Story'' (2001), it is a very moving miniseries and can give the audience a clear idea about Anne Frank. The casting was excellent. Ellie Kendrick- I have no words to describe her- gave an amazing performance as Anne Frank. Really, Ellie is a talented young actress. I'd also like to praise the performances of Felicity Jones who played Margot Frank, Geoff Breton who played Peter van Daan and Tamsin Greig who played Edith Hollander Frank. And Nicholas Ferrell, who played Albert Dussel, also gave a wonderful performance. Lesley Sharp who played Petronella van Daan and Kate Ashfield who played Miep Gies also gave wonderful performances. The casting was, in short, excellent. The story was also arranged in such a way that we liked the movie very much. But I'd like to say that ''Anne Frank: The Whole Story'' and ''The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank'' were better than ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (2009), but still, the 2009 adaption was indeed a nice one and I liked it. I'd like to give the movie: 7 out of 10.

Sixty-three years after the death of Anne Frank, this drama presents the story of her years in hiding in five half-hour episodes, which focus in depth on the events within the annex above her father's factory.

Newcomer Ellie Kendrick plays Anne as a fiery teenager, struggling with inner conflicts and her emerging sexual feelings. This couldn't be presented as clearly in earlier adaptations, and I think this is the first version to use pages of the diary as source material which were originally suppressed by Anne's father, the only person of the eight in the annex to survive the war.

Iain Glen and Tamsin Grieg are both superb as Anne's parents, while Margot (Felicity Jones) and Peter Van Daan (Geoff Breton) present their characters' limited facets very well. Ron Cook, Lesley Sharp, and Nicolas Farrell play the remaining refugees (Mr and Mrs Van Daan, and dentist Mr Dussell).

You get a real sense of what it is to live in a confined space, largely in silence, with only a few hours of respite to go downstairs for food (Peter has to take potatoes from the warehouse below), and to talk and live together in some semblance of real life. For three years this was the life for eight individuals and a cat living in close proximity, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.

Rightly, this series ends with details of what happened to each of the refugees, and does not flinch from making clear the plight of the Jews outside of the annex, who are taken away in the night and herded into transports towards their death - such a fate also awaits the occupants of the Dutch annex, and it is with a heavy heart we realise this at the end - even though we knew it all the time, we lived in hope along with them.

My wife read the Diary of Anne Frank last year for English class, and when we visited Amsterdam we went to see the house.

The house in this TV series is exactly the same as the real house, almost to the extent that I wonder if they filmed it there.

The story as told in this series is very close to the book and shows Anne as she shows herself in her diary. An intelligent, boisterous, moody, lively teenage girl.

The fact that she was SO full of energy and ideas and yet was cooped up in those rooms for so long is the really moving thing about the book I think and they have captured it very well in the series.

This BBC drama feels completely authentic, I can't think of anything to criticise it about at all!

There can't be many people who haven't heard of the story of Anne Frank. The 13 year old girl from a Jewish family who, to avoid evacuation from Holland by the Nazis, hid with her family in the rooms above her fathers business for 2 years before being caught. The diary she kept during this period was published after the war and has since been translated into a number of languages and has become the most widely read piece of non-fiction apart from the Bible.

The rights to the story are rarely available and it's pleasing that this new production transmitted on the BBC over five half-hour episodes on consecutive nights is a great example of quality, thought provoking and moving television that should be enjoyed by all.

Ellie Kendrick stars as Anne, the teenage daughter of Otto (Iain Glen) and Edith Frank (Tamsin Greig). In her diaries Anne comes across as a precocious teenager, sometimes impertinent and always with something to say regardless of other peoples feelings and Ellie Kendrick's performance captures this perfectly. She is a teenager after all and we get to know all her growing pains through her diary entries. Iain Glen is the solid and almost perfect father and is amiably assisted by Tamsin Grieg as a quiet and dependable mother. The supporting cast including Lesley Sharp, Ron Cook and Geoff Bretton as the Van Daans are all exceptional, particularly Lesley Sharp whose performance as the selfish and head strong Petronella was always entertaining. The production values were first rate and the recreation of the rooms where the families lived really made you appreciated how claustrophobic, stressful, and monotonous their daily lives must have been. As the series concludes and you get more and more attached to these characters the sudden discovery of the secret annex by the police is well handled and very emotional.

A very strong series that is never preachy or over-dramatic and which I hope is transmitted in as many countries as possible. Highly enjoyable and recommended.