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THE PINNACLE of Potterism. Here, over six weeks on peak time Sunday BBC1, was childhood repression, physical degradation, casual racism, a profusion of breastage, village school bullying, turds in desks, runaway wheelchairs, runaway Underground trains, too too too much flaky skin, PATRICK MALAHIDE’s bare bonking arse in the woods, imaginary hitmen, pulp crime fiction, palm court dance bands, word games, ALISON STEADMAN – or maybe JANET SUZMAN – being fished naked out of the Thames, talking scarecrows, the tallest tree in the world and MICHAEL GAMBON getting his penis greased. All set to the swinging sound of 1940s popular music classics. “When I grow up, everything, everything will be all right.”
The People’s Songs
Wot No Joanne Whalley as Nurse Mills? :-(
“Ah! I’m so sorry.That’s the one part of me that still sort of functions.”
Janet Henfrey as the teacher was bloody terrifying.
We had a deputy headmistress like that at my school. Didn’t she also get them to sing It’s A Lovely Day tomorrow in one episode?
I remember her putting “the fear of God” into them after the Michael Gambon character dropped a huge turd on her desk.
Just watched this for the first time. While it all seems dredged right from Potter’s subconscious (though he denied it was autobiographical), does the fact that it resonated with a broader audeince speak to his story-telling ability, or that sexual repression, tyrannical teachers and self-loathing are universal, at least for those in the UK?
Oh yes, Henfrey as the blank-eyed scarecrow was even more terrifying than the classroom interrogation!