The Diary of Anne Frank

My wife read the Diary of Anne Frank last year for English class, and when we visited Amsterdam we went to see the house.

The house in this TV series is exactly the same as the real house, almost to the extent that I wonder if they filmed it there.

The story as told in this series is very close to the book and shows Anne as she shows herself in her diary. An intelligent, boisterous, moody, lively teenage girl.

The fact that she was SO full of energy and ideas and yet was cooped up in those rooms for so long is the really moving thing about the book I think and they have captured it very well in the series.

This BBC drama feels completely authentic, I can't think of anything to criticise it about at all!

I've always heard fascinating rumors about Anne Frank and her life living during the Holocaust but I never really found the strength to pick up her book and read her firsthand knowledge about what really happened and what it was like living under bombs. When I found there was a movie on Netflix about her that was young adult friendly, I was more than interested to watch the movie.

Director Jon Jones intends for this movie to inform young audiences about the headstrong young lady, Anne, played by Ellie Kendrick and her struggles and emotions while living in a Dutch underground with more than just her family, while still obtaining the feeling and normality of a regular teenage girl.

After receiving a diary for her birthday Anne is constantly writing all her thoughts and feelings about her now not normal life after finding out that they must go into hiding due to business with her father Otto, played by Iain Glen. With the help from Miep Gies who helps the family hide, Anne's curiosity about the outside world astonishes her and leads her to find out new things about her self and her body. This sassy teenager will not be pushed around and is not afraid to make sure things are fair even if she gets punished.

This film had me at the edge of my seat and I was anxious to see whats happened next. This movie is great for younger audiences and it has an accurate portrayal of what life was like in hiding. Anne will bring our your curious side and you will connect with her as she unravels the truths of the heart.

Cast: Kate Ashfield, Geoffery Breton, Ron Cook, Nicholas Ferrel, Iain Glen, Tamsin Greig, Felicity Jones, Ellie Kendrick

Director: Jon Jones

Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Sixty-three years after the death of Anne Frank, this drama presents the story of her years in hiding in five half-hour episodes, which focus in depth on the events within the annex above her father's factory.

Newcomer Ellie Kendrick plays Anne as a fiery teenager, struggling with inner conflicts and her emerging sexual feelings. This couldn't be presented as clearly in earlier adaptations, and I think this is the first version to use pages of the diary as source material which were originally suppressed by Anne's father, the only person of the eight in the annex to survive the war.

Iain Glen and Tamsin Grieg are both superb as Anne's parents, while Margot (Felicity Jones) and Peter Van Daan (Geoff Breton) present their characters' limited facets very well. Ron Cook, Lesley Sharp, and Nicolas Farrell play the remaining refugees (Mr and Mrs Van Daan, and dentist Mr Dussell).

You get a real sense of what it is to live in a confined space, largely in silence, with only a few hours of respite to go downstairs for food (Peter has to take potatoes from the warehouse below), and to talk and live together in some semblance of real life. For three years this was the life for eight individuals and a cat living in close proximity, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.

Rightly, this series ends with details of what happened to each of the refugees, and does not flinch from making clear the plight of the Jews outside of the annex, who are taken away in the night and herded into transports towards their death - such a fate also awaits the occupants of the Dutch annex, and it is with a heavy heart we realise this at the end - even though we knew it all the time, we lived in hope along with them.

There can't be many people who haven't heard of the story of Anne Frank. The 13 year old girl from a Jewish family who, to avoid evacuation from Holland by the Nazis, hid with her family in the rooms above her fathers business for 2 years before being caught. The diary she kept during this period was published after the war and has since been translated into a number of languages and has become the most widely read piece of non-fiction apart from the Bible.

The rights to the story are rarely available and it's pleasing that this new production transmitted on the BBC over five half-hour episodes on consecutive nights is a great example of quality, thought provoking and moving television that should be enjoyed by all.

Ellie Kendrick stars as Anne, the teenage daughter of Otto (Iain Glen) and Edith Frank (Tamsin Greig). In her diaries Anne comes across as a precocious teenager, sometimes impertinent and always with something to say regardless of other peoples feelings and Ellie Kendrick's performance captures this perfectly. She is a teenager after all and we get to know all her growing pains through her diary entries. Iain Glen is the solid and almost perfect father and is amiably assisted by Tamsin Grieg as a quiet and dependable mother. The supporting cast including Lesley Sharp, Ron Cook and Geoff Bretton as the Van Daans are all exceptional, particularly Lesley Sharp whose performance as the selfish and head strong Petronella was always entertaining. The production values were first rate and the recreation of the rooms where the families lived really made you appreciated how claustrophobic, stressful, and monotonous their daily lives must have been. As the series concludes and you get more and more attached to these characters the sudden discovery of the secret annex by the police is well handled and very emotional.

A very strong series that is never preachy or over-dramatic and which I hope is transmitted in as many countries as possible. Highly enjoyable and recommended.

The cramped existence that the Jewish hideouts were forced to endure during WWII and the Nazi period, is excellently portrayed by a cast of sensitive actors who were fortunate to have a good script to work with.

Ellie Kendrick makes an excellent Anne, bearing a good resemblance to the Jewish girl who loved writing and kept a daily diary of events in the attic where her parents and a some other neighbors were forced to stay. Leslie Sharp and Nicholas Farrell as the Van Daans are particularly moving members of the strong cast.

The gradual maturity of a girl confronting her feelings about boys as she grows up is portrayed in a poignant and tender manner. The story is compelling from the start and increases in intensity as various conflicts among the attic inhabitants arouse hostility and anger.

What might have made the whole drama even more intense would be outdoor scenes outside the confines of the attic showing how the villagers were being treated by the Nazis, but since those incidents would be outside the scope of Anne's diary the drama remains intimate instead with a narrower focus.

Well worth viewing even if you've seen the big screen version made by George Stevens in 1959.