Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle

Mr Happy, aka Mr Harvey has organised a School trip, the destination Salisbury Cathedral, only it isn't long before he's pushed to extremes by an unruly bunch of teenagers.

It's a brave drama, it's incredibly moving and poignant, a huge amount of depth, and some hugely touching scenes. It develops incredibly well as time goes on, the ending is incredible.

Self harm, discrimination, lots of stuff that kids say and mean without thinking about, now of course The BBC imagines such things aren't said.

If you get s chance to visit Salisbury Cathedral do so, it looks great here, nothing will prepare you for the sheer wonder of the place.

I loved David Bradley's character, the grumpy bus driver who watches all events happening with glee, he's like the perfect onlooker.

First rate acting, Spall is incredible as always, Ben Miles and Celia Imrie also. Lots of young talent on show here, including singer Jade Ewan, Nathalie Press, and Jodie Latham, who died perhaps look a little old to be in a Schoolboy's uniform.

First class drama, 10/10.

if you have a chance of seeing this film do see it. it's quite shocking in parts and really makes you think about so many important issues but it's not didactic. in my opinion it's a piece of art... beautifully filmed, fine music of many styles, the typically impressive level of acting that one has come to expect from BBC Drama. Nathalie Press (billed as 'Natalie' Press) is convincing in her role as depressed teenager exploited by a male classmate. Celia Imrie has that beautifully reassuring quality that gives the sometimes unnerving action stability and the viewer comfort in the knowledge that someone out there is actually 'normal', but the real star as always is Timothy Spall - surely one of the greatest actors of our time!

Amazing acting, music. A simple and clear plot but it drew me in and kept me captivated all the way through. I don't know why it was so fantastic but it simply was. So many of the characters were so real. It moved me and made me think I would like to watch more like this.

The idea of a school trip as a forum for such an amazing plot was a genius idea and so many of the people were like people were like those encountered every day by teachers in the classroom.

The film tackles issues of religion, prejudice,drugs friendship, memories, difficult experiences and simple the diversity of life itself.

I wanted to like this more than I did. Timothy Spall is one of my favorite actors.

The story is pretty straight forward as it was in the tagline.

I kept waiting for Mr. Harvey to unburden himself.

Not completely surprised by the way that it played out but and once again I enjoyed Mr. Spall's work.

I think for me the students were too precocious and played out poorly as well as the development of conflict, which bottomed out early on. I would like very much to find the final script because I felt like it was put together with a weak middle.

Whether I am right or not remains to be seen but it became a bit too melodramatic for me and I cannot in good faith recommend it.

I've certainly watched much worse as of late but this had potential to be much better than it was.

"Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle" is anchored by a brilliant performance by Timothy Spall.

While we can predict that his titular morose, up tight teacher will have some sort of break down or catharsis based on some deep down secret from his past, how his emotions are unveiled is surprising. Spall's range of feelings conveyed is quite moving and more than he usually gets to portray as part of the Mike Leigh repertory.

While an expected boring school bus trip has only been used for comic purposes, such as on "The Simpsons," this central situation of a visit to Salisbury Cathedral in Rhidian Brook's script is well-contained and structured for dramatic purposes, and is almost formally divided into acts.

We're introduced to the urban British range of racially and religiously diverse kids (with their uniforms I couldn't tell if this is a "private" or "public" school), as they gather – the rapping black kids, the serious South Asians and Muslims, the white bullies and mean girls – but conveyed quite naturally and individually. The young actors, some of whom I recognized from British TV such as "Shameless," were exuberant in representing the usual range of junior high social pressures. Celia Imrie puts more warmth into the supervisor's role than the martinets she usually has to play.

A break in the trip leads to a transformative crisis for some while others remain amusingly oblivious. We think, like the teacher portrayed by Ben Miles of "Coupling," that we will be spoon fed a didactic lesson about religious tolerance, but it's much more about faith in people as well as God, which is why the BBC showed it in England at Easter time and BBC America showed it in the U.S. over Christmas.

Nathalie Press, who was also so good in "Summer of Love," has a key role in Mr. Harvey's redemption that could have been played for movie-of-the-week preaching, but is touching as they reach out to each other in an unexpected way (unfortunately I saw their intense scene interrupted by commercials).

While it is a bit heavy-handed in several times pointedly calling this road trip "a pilgrimage," this quiet film was the best evocation of "good will towards men" than I've seen in most holiday-themed TV movies.