A Class Apart

My guess is that somebody at the BBC must have promised Jessie Wallace a star 'vehicle' after EastEnders, and this was it. Here she gets to outdo herself in EastEnderishness. Admittedly she does this very efficiently, but who needs it? Everything in this film is clichéd to the ultimate degree. The characters are stereotypes one and all.

Nathaniel Parker plays the standard posh public school person that he has cornered the market in. He is actually the head of a public school in this one. Only he goes silly over Jessie Wallace and her son (who live in the worst street in Britain). He's engaged in a feud with his deputy head and giving a place to a boy from the gutter is part of that.

The boy himself has an accent quite unlike the familiar EastEnders one of his mother and the rest of the family. How is that to be explained? I found him quite hard to understand.

I normally don't like the "soppy" "feel-good" shows, but this was very well done. Jessie Wallace (of EastEnders fame)who plays Candy Jerome, was exceptional. I did realize she could act somewhat, but not on this level...she was wonderful, and very convincing in her role.

Jessie's co-star, Nathaniel Parker who plays Headmaster Anthony Troth is also brilliant in this show, but it took me awhile to get his most famous role, Inspector Lynley out of my head. He plays the POSH head, so he has all the airs and graces of Lynley, but his association with, Candy Jerome is quite out of character.

Very touching show that displays the faults of the British school system, along with it's good points too. A Class Apart also demonstrates that while the "English Class" system is "officialy" dead, in everyday society, it is alive and kicking.

If you are a Jessie Wallace aka "Kat Slater" fan, this is well worth a watch. The Kat is back in all her EastEnders glory in this show!