A three-part dramatisation based on the James Herbert ghost story of the same name.
Following the opening scene where we see a lovely old house, a cramped bedroom full of orphans and a boy trying to hide from a supposedly scary man, we flick to a modern day family (although they appear to have 2.4 children and a dog, so a bit traditional there).
Rest assured the children are modern enough, as are the parent’s laissez-faire responses to their somewhat brat like behaviour: the boy wants to play ‘bombs’ with his Lego set and when the little girl demands her breakfast and her father asks if she’d like to help him find it she simply replies “No.”
A little later mum takes her son ‘Cam’ to the park and says:
“You can go on the slide, the swings or the roundabout, but not
all three, do we have a deal?”
to which her son replies “deal!”
“deal means promise” says the mum
and the boy immediately
responds with
“deal!”
...We then get a clip of her letting him play on all three.
A little later, the mother falls asleep, and shortly after Cam goes missing.
About a year later, they move up to the old orphanage to help take her minds
off things.
The story skips neatly enough along but then when it travels back to the war era, it goes for a typical BBC style bit of traddy Christian/Catholic bashing…portraying
the owners looking after the evacuees as some kind of crazy hate-filled Christian fundamentalists who insist on such outlandish things as shoes being removed upon entering the house, quiet work, toys being earned and
yes-shock horror-they believe in corporal punishment as an extension of their Christian
beliefs!!!
This production also reels forth the old ‘Christians don’t
like Jews’ adage which, to be fair, is tempered a little by the kindness of the new school
mistress who basically represents the ‘Jesus loves everyone’ approach, in a typically trendy modern
(1960s) sandal wearing/guitar strumming non-judgemental/BBC acceptable kind-of-way.
To conclude:
If you can get passed the obvious bias then the story isn't that bad. Give it a look.
All pictures are screenshots.
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