Reach for the Moon

It's about time that television tackled the issue of school related drama in a sophisticated adult fashion. As Reach for the Moon reached its denouement I found my attention torn between the taught drama as the many interwoven sub-plots were played out against the beautiful backdrops of an England (in this case the Isle of Wight) almost all but lost beneath the relentless march of the motorways. I just hope that someone has the vision to bring this to the silver screen whilst there are still such unspoilt pockets of our remarkable planet remaining.

What a shame that a film that started off with such promise grew increasingly banal. The story lines became weaker with each episode and descended into the incredible. For instance the scene where the main character's mother and the head teacher managed to frighten off the local hoodlum by threatening to disallow his son from playing football, was very poor.

In the first episode the dialogue was tight and punchy and augered well for further viewing. Unfortunately it slid downhill with the introduction on soap-opera quality sub plots woven into each weeks episode. More could have been made of the main character's tensions around the triangular relationship instead of slipping in unappealing minor characters and sub-stories. The acting became increasingly wooden, particularly amongst the younger actors (school children).

Well acted by Linda Bellingham and Peter McEnery, but the choice of the actor playing the main character was all wrong for the simple reason that his Northern acccent kept slipping out, even though it was meant to be the Isle of Wight.

Great advertisement for the island. they'll be inundated with rubber neckers now. But I'm disappointed that Matthew Graham gave the nod to having his name put on the writing credits.