Joe Maddison's War

After reading the reviews here I was not expecting much. However, the film is a worthy send off for Alan Plater who died in 2010. I always like Robson Green, Kevin Whately and Derek Jacobi and their performances make this production. While the special effects were not that special the acting was excellent and the plot gave me some insight into the Home Guard in World War 2, which reflected rather better on them than we are used to from the BBC TV series Dad's Army.

The film deals with the trauma for parents in WW11 and the pressure on relationships, but in the end is uplifting. I have been watching so much rubbish recently, it seems to me, and coming across something like this was a pleasant surprise. I don't think you will regret spending your time watching it.

This was a good effort with some excellent performances from Kevin Whately, Derek Jacoby and Robson Green, who as a rule I don't reckon to be much of an actor. It was let down by some very poor production values, possibly driven by a low budget. The waves of bombers coming over at what looked more like 500' rather 10,000' were totally unconvincing, as were the pathetic pyrotechnic affects, with the unexploded bomb going off sounding like a Chinese cracker. Joe's son remained a sergeant all the way through the war despite flying on over 50 ops - that would never have happened, he would have almost certainly made warrant officer by the end. There were innumerable continuity errors - Joe goes out for a walk with his medal ribbons the right way up, half way through the walk they are suddenly upside down, and when he gets home they have disappeared altogether! Terrible. Shame the actors were let down by a sloppy production team. Not one I'd bother to watch again.

I love the work of Alan Plater. His Beiderbecke series was absolute magic. But those stories weren't told in 110 minutes but slowly developed over many episodes which helped give it greater depth and great characters. I have to agree with the previous reviewer that this production of Joe Maddisons war fell well short of its full potential. It could have been a cracker of a story showing the frustration of a man who could not actively participate on the front line, being able to do his bit in the Home Guard. It could also have given us a more balanced view of the contribution of the Home Guard than the admittedly very funny but inaccurate "Dads Army" series. Unfortunately all we got was a meandering saga spread thinly from 1940 to 1945 with unnecessary interjections of archive footage that was supposed to set the time but arrived in the most curious places seeming to split a subplot in half. The actors did well with the material they had, Derek Jacobi as always superb, Robson Green adding the comic element, but they were let down by the story and continuity. It is a great pity that Alan Platers Swan Song is such a disappointment.

Alan Plater's last work, Joe Maddison's War was set in the north east and consisted of plenty of songs and tunes, even some jazz something he was fond of.

This drama starts off with a marriage and ends with another. Kevin Whately is Joe, a veteran of the Great War with his best friend Harry (Robson Green.) Both the work in the Tyneside shipyard and with the outbreak of the second world war they wind up in the Home Guard, but not before his wife suddenly leaves him for reasons we are not initially told about. We do gather that his wife is a devout Catholic while Joe lost his faith in the Somme.

At least being in the Home Guard gives him something to do. Along the way he hooks up with a widow who gives him love and tenderness as his children make their own way in life, his son is in the RAF where he has done over 50 missions.

As the war years go past, his wife returns wanting to get back together with Joe. She got pregnant by another man. Joe later reflects that he ended up doing more things during the war than any other part of his life.

The story is well acted but rather a slight story. Plater avoids going down too deep on a dark path, keeping things rather gentle and lighthearted, also indicating why it was Clement Atlee's vision of the country that people went for after the war. It is a shame that the production values looked a bit cheap.

A few well-known faces (including Derek Jacobi) can't lift this awful drama.

The stilted and silly script is further hampered by the bloody annoying interruptions of vintage news footage. It's presumably there to lead us through the time-line but just serves to annoy the viewer when it jumps on stage unexpectedly.

Joe Maddison is a burdened WW1 veteran who has survived The Somme. As the next great war breaks out, his wife leaves then later comes back while he's keeping company with a war widow. She's up the duff with someone else's baby while he and his chums make a mockery of the newly formed Home Guard in Tyneside.

There's a lot of anti-war posturing in this program and it gets in the way of the story. What might have been a darkly comic look at some ageing and shell-shocked Home Guardsmen is just a hackneyed sketch about silly, childish old men who create their own silly childish problems.

Not one for the UK TV Hall of Fame time capsule!