Bootleg

I was so impressed with Bootleg. I thought it started strong, but just got better and better as the show progressed. Episode three had me on the edge of my seat in parts, and in tears in other parts. The cast is very strong, although the Australian accents do shine through in places. I'm assuming it is supposed to be set in England and not Australia. The two leading kids (Steven Geller and Anthony Hammer) do a brilliant job of portraying Huntley and Smudger. Anthony is Australian and Steven is English. The two of them seemed to have so much energy ,and were genuinely believable as good friends. I wonder how they were off camera. My guess is that they got on really well. Anthony's robotic trance in episode 3 is faultless. You will recognise Anthony from his days as Leo Hancock in Neighbours. I was extremely impressed with Steven Geller's performance. His character takes longer to explain than Anthony's. But in Episode three, he went through all the emotions perfectly. His tearful and aggressive scenes were very believable, and the stare of disbelief at the end of episode 2 gave me goose pimples! You will recognise him from playing Mike in Mike and Angelo on CITV. Martin Jarvis played a lovely old book seller, and Gemma Jones was a warm and cuddly sweet shop owner.

Overall, Alex Shearer's novel was beautifully brought to life by Ian Gilmore's clever directing. It was a funny and light hearted tea-time drama which the BBC should be proud of. I'm not sure whether they are planning a sequel, but I would certainly watch it if they did. I look forward to the DVD or video release.

Congratulations to all involved.

9.5/10

If this isn't one of the best ever family mini series, then please kill me. For i believe that the acting is brilliant, the stars know how to speak, yes, thats right, how to speak, and the plot is excellently drafted. On the whole i give the show a healthy 8/10. The acting is excellent, and the props are quite believable. You feel like becoming part of the show. Chocaholics are probably the target audience. Frankly, if chocolate isn't the main subject of the show, then it must be cocoa mass!!! Of course, it's great fun for all ages on a cold winter day when you don't want to see star wars of teletubbies, but something nice and relaxing, yet compelling drama.

This is an interesting TV show, but I found it annoying that they made Melbourne look like it was England or something... the Victorian number plates on cars made it a bit obvious. For such a politically charged show show, i wouldn't think that ethnicity would be such an issue, and being Australian such a 'liability'.

The government imposes the ban on chocolate ! Well, that might be a stupid point to start a movie, but it handles the idea very well: if you forbide something that people want, they will fight to get it back. Black market will appear, and everybody that we know will suffer the consequences.

It is a good family movie, but also it works at another level: replace the word "chocolate" by "cocaine", "pot", "heroine", or "iron maiden LPs", and you'll get the idea. The writers have managed to understand the mechanics of the black market and all the clichés of the underground movements and put it into a nice Sunday evening cable movie. Of course that it went unnoticed under all the Harry Potter hype, but it has that kind of stories that will touch some kind of fiber in you, even with all those clichés flying around.

I have read this book numerous times to my students and only just discovered this adaptation. While it stays true to the essence of the main story line, I was disappointed that some of the plot details were changed, especially the ones that were so much a part of the humour in the book. I was also disappointed in the casting of Frankie Crawley who in my vision should have been much smaller and meeker only puffing himself up to match his 'authority'. His and Myrtle Perkin's (another name change) storylines were not well developed in this adaptation either. However, the retelling of this story grew on me and I think it was quite well done overall.