Rockbird1986

You must see this, it's amazing! That was the general consensus amongst friends. I was familiar with the story having been a big fan of 'Barnum', the Michael Crawford stage show of the early 80s so I knew the storyline.

And so it starts with a bang and a catchy opening number. Unfortunately that's where the fun ends. Having been looking forward to it, we struggled to the end through an almost non existent plot, unlikeable characters, dull, samey music and uninspired production. Glad I only wasted the £12 download fee and not the £50 it would have cost to see it at the cinema. In this instance the critics were right.

Only just discovered this - yes I'm late to the party! It's not really my kind of thing on paper but on screen it works very well. Family unit is shaken by the sudden departure of the (frankly useless and irritating) husband meaning that they suddenly lose everything and have to rebuild their lives. This is against a backdrop of general anxiety about the splitting of the moon into three chunks and what might happen next.

The main characters are mostly likeable - this was a nice show for Elizabeth McGovern who is charming in everything she's been in. Her son and daughter are played by actors who would have driven me crazy had there been any more than 9 episodes. Rob Boltin is great and a very appealing male lead and there was a supporting cast of fun characters to help the story along.

It's not sci-fi (thank God) and it's quirky and a bit silly but very good fun. Just wish it had ended differently! So near and yet so far...

As others have outlined the plot I see no need to do the same. But primarily, I have to take issue with the previous posters slating Ms Powers. Stefanie turns in a top notch performance as always, treating each of Mrs Trefoile's latest maniac actions with just the right amount of exasperation and humour, in the knowledge that Pat (her character) got herself into this mess, which she did! I see no evidence at all of overacting and, even if this were the case I would have been hard pressed to spot it amidst the melodramatic performance that Ms Bankhead turned in.

I was interested to see Yootha Joyce, an actress who I obviously knew as a kid from George and Mildred, but that was it. Unfortunately, both Yootha and her character were completely underused. Such a waste.

The one thing that really bugs me though, is if Patricia was able to give Anna a run for her money in the fight scenes, why did she not just kick the gun out of Mrs Trefoile's hand? Ah, the beauty of cinema!

It's a great film with some terrific actors but Hammer must have been having an off day re the scariness. I didn't even need a cushion to hide behind. So watch it as a chance to see a terrific actress at the start of her career and another at the end.