Cider with Rosie

Cider with Rosie is a text that almost everyone seems to read at school. I never did read the whole book but was always given extracts to work on. I expected this would be some kind of nostalgia filled reminiscence of childhood in Gloucestershire.

I liked young Loll surrounded in a busy household playing sodgers (sic) in the middle of The Great War. However it is a childhood where his father is absent and young Loll does not understand the brutality of the war or the deserter hiding in the woods.

At school he sits between two girls who will have an influence in his childhood and even his adult life.

The older Loll lacks the sweetness of his younger self, being gawky like many adolescents. However he discovers that at times the villagers need to stick together such as when the domineering teacher is placed on top of the cupboard to the delight of the rest of the class or in a more darker turn when a returning ex-pat, now wealthy is killed and robbed.

June Whitfield and Annette Crosbie play the two grannies living on the top and bottom of a house who communicate with each other by banging their broom handles on the floor or the ceiling.

Eventually Loll has that romantic encounter under the cart with Rosie fuelled with cider which acts as a sort of climax to the story.

I have to say this was not a great adaptation even though it was busy in places. We are told that Loll's mother went to see her husband after the war but we got to know little about him or why he abandoned his family. The 1998 television film gave more details about this.

This version of the film had narration by Timothy Spall as the voice of Laurie Lee reading extracts from the book in a very florid dialect which sounded unnatural and over the top to my ears. The 1998 film had narration recorded by Laurie Lee himself just before he died and that sounded more naturalistic.

However director Philippa Lowthorpe has worked hard to bring a different nuance to this version of the film.

Having lived in Cheltenham & explored the Cotswolds a lot, we were looking forward to this, but what a waste of time! If my hadn't been suffering with flu, we would have switched off. (It was all she could concentrate on.)

Glorious filming of the countryside. 1 point. Samantha Morton was very good. 1 pt. Tim Spall's accent & voiceover were very good too. 1 pt. Acting overall - terrible! Story is so inconsequential as to be worthy of no more than a 5 minute film. Avoid!

This story of a life in simpler times, was magical.

It reminded me of how busy we've all got, and how we've lost the connection to community and nature with our busy city lives.

The movie sits in a time between the two world wars, and shows the strength of women, and the family bond.

This is a simple movie. Not one with outstanding acting or huge moments. It is slowly told, with sincerity and an eye for the beauty in moments.

Take some time to escape, and soak in this magical story

I'm sorry to be at odds with the other reviewer, but what a total shambles this was. I've given glowing reviews of An Inspector calls and the excellent go between, as well as a fairly good review of Lady Chatterley, but the final instalment of the Beeb's twentieth Century drama remakes was awful. I love Timothy Spall, but his narration was like scratching down a blackboard, after a while it became really irritating. The acting was woeful, truly the worst I've seen on a historical drama for about 20 years. Thank goodness for the 3 or 4 minutes that June Whitfield and Annette Crosbie were in it, they added a little humour and showed us what acting is. I hate knocking anyone for trying but some of the accents were so bad that at times it felt like all that was missing were The Two Ronnies sat at their allotment. 3/10 a total yawn fest.

Jack Harris' distinction of Spadge Hopkin is nothing short of a master piece - his magnum opus. I laughed I wept and I had goose bumps throughout. Every time he was on screen the atmosphere change, cold...but in a kind of rock n roll way. Jack, young and green, portrays the Victoria secondary school bully in a complicated and endearing rollercoaster - considering he was only 13 when filmed, it's incredible. Safe to say this young buck has a bright future ahead of him.

Jack Harris' distinction of Spadge Hopkin is nothing short of a master piece - his magnum opus. I laughed I wept and I had goose bumps throughout. Every time he was on screen the atmosphere change, cold...but in a kind of rock n roll way. Jack, young and green, portrays the Victoria secondary school bully in a complicated and endearing rollercoaster - considering he was only 13 when filmed, it's incredible. Safe to say this young buck has a bright future ahead of him.