chrischapman-47545

Not being too au fait with the TV series (where some reviewers have bemoaned the lack of familiar faces in this movie) I found it quite amusing although I marked it down a point due to the song and dance routines. Stand out performances by. Emilia Jones (who deservedly has gone on to receive many awards as a promising and capable actress) and also Lee Mack who is ideally cast. Many other well known British comedy and TV drama personalities appear and even Kim. Cattrall and Derek Jacobi - everyone seems to be having fun and hamming things up. The script is pretty good with lots of well timed funny asides - it feels a bit like Holy Grail/Life of Brian in places. Clearly made on a budget, even if partly filmed in Bulgaria, there is a huge list of people involved in its making - characteristic BBC overmanning which could have been spent better? It feels a bit like a TV rather than a cinematic movie. Overall quite enjoyable and if it helps to get children interested in history that can't be bad.

This series looks at wildlife, including human, in various parts of the UK over the space of 12 months using a variety of filming techniques. The result is colourful and visually stunning whilst also extremely informative - just the thing to get children out and about and interested in what goes on around them which may otherwise be completely overlooked. Mention must also be made of the high quality script and sympathetic narration. Unfortunately there are only three episodes although there is scope to do many more. This is one of the things that the BBC is best at doing and so I highly recommend it.

While I have respect for Ant as an engineer, and author/writer, this series almost falls into the same traps as many motoring programmes. Obviously staged in parts, it can be simplistic in that only certain car faults are shown and a lot of refurbishment work simply isn't shown. Then vehicles are sold at an upmarket auction which may not always be the best solution. The link to renovating a house for his parents (not ideally suited for them given their age?) is novel but again it is simplified. Ant comes across as a bit of a drama queen and impulsive. At least he treats his audience with some respect in terms of their assumed technical knowledge and doesn't constantly repeat the same issues. Nevertheless it could be significantly better, especially if they ditched the inevitable background music..