Tomorrow La Scala!

A small opera company manages to get further funding by working with prisoners in s maximum security prison for life. They audition 8 lifers and one staff and give them all parts in the chorus. However the realities of prison life and the curiosities reveals different things about both groups.

Shown in Cannes this film drew a standing ovation at the end of the screening and watching it makes you understand why – it is a really wonderful film. The plot is really just a means of getting to understand the realities of life for these men – to view them as `just men' as Victoria does is not the case, but to see them only as murders is wrong as well. The staging of Sweeney Todd is a good device but the interactions of the characters are what makes this piece so moving.

At the start we only see these men as lifers and nothing more. We too want to try and see them in one category or another but it is more than that. Walter is a prime example – a violent, strong man but yet he weeps with gratitude at the small trappings of normality he is given by the opera company. To see one young prison reduced to tears by a cruel journalist was really powerful. None of them are the same and we are taught this gradually, without sweeping events – just constant minor observations.

This is all down to a great script but the actors make every character believable. I only know Stevenson from the hilarious Spaced but here she is on top form, despite being one of the less open characters. All the support cast are excellent but the inmates are the best – they all bring so much out of each of their characters it is untrue. If you've ever seen Oz you'll know how brutal prison dramas can be, but, unlike Oz, here we get the characters being more than just violent men. They are full of regret, pain and anger. Burfield is great as Walter. Another actor who does very well is Shaun Dingwall who is bang on the money here.

Overall it is very hard to describe this film adequately. It is simply a great character driven drama that you should search out if necessary as it is actually a lot more moving that I can manage to describe here.

I enjoyed this BBC Films production very much. It was reported in the press in the United Kingdom that the film was due a cinema release. However, it was alleged in those newspapers that the necessary permission had not been given to use the music in a cinema release (or could not in some other way be secured at the right price). Thus it was shown on British television (on BBC 2) since those rights had been obtained or were so covered by one of a number of agreements the BBC has with organisations representing music composers and lyricists.

One of the talents who made the film was reported to have said that this is the trouble with using music from a living composer.

It seems that, as a result, it has not been submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for release in the United Kingdom and it appears at the moment unlikely.

Francesca Joseph's made-for-TV movie is a small masterpiece of observation, at once very funny and very moving. A small opera company arrives at a maximum security prison with the intention of staging Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" with a chorus of lifers. In the course of the auditions both the company and the prisoners learn, not only to live with each other, but also to trust and respect and finally like each other.

Coming from the same school as "The Full Monty" this is an altogether more perceptive look at the school of hard knocks we know as life, and is better written, directed and acted. The entire cast perform beautifully, moving seamlessly from broad farce to near tragedy sometimes within the same scene and while it is invidious to single anyone out I feel I must mention Jessica Stephenson (snooty, pretentious director who finally melts), Samantha Spiro (an over-sexed Mrs Lovett), Shaun Digwall (outwardly hard-as-nails, inwardly heart-of-gold jailer) and the great Karl Johnson (hard-bitten old timer).

Made by BBC films, this cries out for a cinema release where it's small but undeniably considerable virtues would surely have put it in the running for an Oscar. For now, let us be grateful it has finally been screened and here's hoping for an early release on DVD. Absolutely unmissible.