Gangsta Granny

Adapting David Walliams books over Christmas has become a bit of a BBC tradition in recent years, and this was the second attempt.

While not as good as 'Mr Stink' this is a warm hearted and funny piece of entertainment for all the family, that features some big name stars embracing the fun.

It doesn't lag in terms of pace and has the necessary sadness that underpin the humour that 'The Boy in the Dress' which followed a year later lacked.

The star stealing turn for me was from Miranda Hart, who manages to earn a laugh from practically all of her lines.

Well done to all involved.

This movie just tries too hard to be funny and appeal to kids. It's badly made, its jokes are predictable and unfunny, but its emotional scenes are quite good.

But if you're looking for actually FUNNY entertainment, avoid this movie.

This film comes from the mind of comedian turned writer David Walliams. It's one of his many children's books to be turned into a TV movie, which is appropriately rated U for all audiences. This feature is directed by Matt Lipsey, it has a runtime of about an hour, and like Walliams's other features, there is a decent cast assembled to act out the parts.

11-year-old Ben is bored. Every weekend his parents Linda and Mike spend time with their hobby of ballroom dancing. They are either watching it on TV, or they are doing it as a dancing couple. Meanwhile Ben is constantly being shipped off to his grandmother's house who he finds boring. One day Ben discovers that his grandmother is not as boring as he thought, in fact she is a world-renowned jewel thief called that Black Cat. She stopped short of her greatest robbery on account of Ben's father being born and since then she has lived out a quiet life. With Ben's encouragement she is talked back into the business of robbery and together they go after the greatest prize of all, the crown jewels.

Julia McKenzie, once "Shirley Valentine" (1989) plays granny in this film, with Reece Buttery playing young Ben. His parents are played by David Walliams and Miranda Hart, with Rob Brydon, Claudia Winkleman, Harish Patel, Robbie Williams, and Joanna Lumley all appearing too.

This TV film is one of many of Walliams's kids' books which seems to be syndicated to appear every Christmas and New Year in the UK. Despite being produced in the last century, it already feels old because it is written in a way that dates it to a particular era of linguistics. In the film Ben suggests his grandma should be "more gangsta", and the use of language here dates to between 2005-2015 (at a stretch), beyond which, this kind of linguistic became 'lame'.

On the surface this is a simple enough film which tries to enforce loving the entire family, but it is also not without it is flaws too. It encourages stealing and lying, it suggests that being condescending is ok, and when Ben ditches his dance partner it encourages viewers to not bother doing something if they do not want to - and furthermore, lie about it too and just do not justify or apologise for it. I recently watched another of David Walliams's books to films recently - "Mr Stink" (2012). This film fell into the same trap as that did - it was written how an adult perceived kids to be, with what he thought they would want. Rather than what they wanted and how they were. It tries too hard and stumbles. Yes, it's a kid's movie, but it's predictable and not that entertaining - and I'm not judging this just by my own viewing pleasures too. I have sat down my young cousins in front of this and none of them were engrossed or entertained. I cannot rate or recommend this film that highly. Do yourself a favour and look out for a Roald Dahl or Dr Seuss feature instead.

A young boy learns that his sweet, meak, mild mannered grandmother used to be a jewel thief, the pair hatch a daring plan.

I think of all the books of David Walliams, that this was the best of them, it's a sweet, fun read, with some interesting, defiant characters, people that have broken free or the moulds that society places them.

It tries so hard, and many of the jokes land a fair bit short, but overall it's a decent watch, some of it was quite moving, the ending in particular was.

Julia McKenzie steals the show, and is a cut above, excellent from her.

Miranda Hart was pretty good fun, her brand of humour was definitely welcome, I thought David Walliams was painful at times.

Superior to the awful follow up that came in 2022, it's a bit of an oddity, but for a bit of Christmas family fun it's a decent watch, 6/10.

My daughter, who is 7 enjoyed the film, although did'nt quite get some of it. I love Miranda hart so enjoyed her performance as Ben's mother. Julia Mcenzie is also fab as granny but the screen play is poor. Granny ''pretends' to have been an international jewel thief in her past in order to change Ben's view of her as a boring old woman. Very strange to have a subsequent scene where Ben catches her attempting to steal jewellery through the window of a shop. Granny later admits that she had made the story up (so why were you seen trying to rob a jewellers???) In the end her biscuit tin of gems is given to a charity shop and was found to be worth a fortune....ah so it was true!. Not very funny, not very clever and when my daughter asked for the book I refused. David Walliams has somehow made millions from these awful Roald dahl rip off books and if an unknown author had been behind it I doubt it would have been made into a film.