BBC Drama – 2000’s

Nature Boy – Simply Media DVD Review

archivetvmusings BBC Drama - 2000's, Simply Media , , , ,

nature

David Witton (Lee Ingleby) is a troubled seventeen year old.  Along with several other youngsters he lives with foster parents (he barely remembers his father who left home when he was a young child, his mother refuses to speak to him) and he’s been placed in the remedial class at school.

He’s not a troublemaker though, which is made clear during a particularly rowdy lesson.  The other pupils are enjoying themselves by baiting the teacher whilst David remains totally absorbed in a world of his own.  To make this point plain, the background noise is gently faded down until there’s total quiet as David continues to look out of the window at a pair of nesting birds.  When the teacher asks him what he’s looking at, he replies “great tits” which she naturally takes the wrong way (as do the rest of the class).

Even this early on, we can see that David is disconnected from virtually everyone around him.  The only constants in his life are his love of nature plus the companionship of Fred (Mark Benton) who lives on the nature reserve.  But whilst the beauty of the local landscape offers some respite from reality it can only be a temporary refuge.

The opening episode is bleak on so many levels.  David meets Anne-Marie (Vicky Binns) who’s come to stay with his foster parents.  She’s about his age, although she seems much older – telling him that her previous foster father regularly abused her.  This isn’t a major plot point, simply some incidental colour as it’s taken as read that such things happen.  A familiar television face, thanks to long stints on both Emmerdale and Coronation Street, Binns offers a haunting portrait of a doomed, disaffected youth.

The serial makes an interesting choice when it’s revealed that Fred was a paedophile  The details aren’t revealed but David remains non judgmental (telling him that’s what he was, not who he is now) although that doesn’t prevent a group of youths (who were looking for David) from burning his hut down.  It’s no surprise that Mark Benton is excellent as Fred.  Not an easy role to play (nor is it a particularly large one) but it’s another performance that lingers in the memory.

It can’t be a coincidence that David reacts in the same way after he finds a stricken deer (which he’s forced to kill in front of his horrified classmates) and when he sees Anne-Marie’s lifeless body washed up on the shore.  Both times he mourns for a life lost, and it seems that both were equally important to him.

There’s nothing left for him at home now, so he sets off to find his father, Steve (Paul McGann).  His father is a constant presence in the narrative – regularly glimpsed briefly in flashback sequences as David slowly begins to remember more about him.  But with only a single photograph it seems unlikely he’ll be able to track him down.

As episode two opens, David is far from home and living off the land.  If this open-air existence could been seen as idyllic (the acoustic, guitar based incidental music reinforces this) there’s also the sense that – as with his trips to the nature reserve in the first episode – these moments of pleasure can only be fleeting ones. As his small boat sails into port he’s greeted by an ugly, industrial landscape and the incidental music changes accordingly.

David, nursing an injured fox, is found by a young boy Miles (Samuel Sackville) hiding in his parent’s shed. Miles is withdrawn and barely speaks, thanks to his domineering father Tom (Andrew Woodall) but David’s empathy not only exists with animals – he’s able, with the aid of the fox, to bring the previously taciturn Miles out of his shell. He can obviously see something of himself in Miles (who has to endure violent rows between his parents). The pair share several lovely scenes and their final one (soundtracked by Paul Weller’s Brand New Start) stands out.

David’s winsome, vulnerable persona claims another convert as he’s befriended by Jenny (Joanne Froggatt). Downtown Abbey is one of her most recent high-profile roles, but here she was right at the start of her career. Immediately prior to this she’d played the gormless work experience girl Sigourney in the series two opener of dinnerladies and a few years later would have an impressive dual role in the first episode of The Last Detective.

Tom (a local MP) is presented as such an obnoxious individual that it’s just about credible that his wife Martha (Lesley Sharp) would be so attracted to David that she’d want to sleep with him. Just about. Although since Martha and Tom have no sex-life to speak of, it’s maybe not surprising that she grabs the nearest available man she can find (even if it’s a seventeen year old living in her shed). Clearly you’ve got to watch the quiet ones …..

It’s a slight plot contrivance that Jenny is campaigning against the local industrial company Blexco whilst Martha is handling PR for them. It’s Martha’s job to spin the message that they’re not damaging the environment – instead they’ve helping the community by bringing employment into the area as well as sponsoring local projects. No surprise that Jenny isn’t convinced (cement dust killed her brother) although she’s something of a lone voice to begin with.

Blexco are exposed, but things don’t end well for David and he’s forced to move on. The third installment begins with Jenny’s involvement with a group of protesters who are attempting to stop the felling of a forest. As with the previous episode, we see the sharp contrast between nature and business (here it’s the Keyways construction site). There’s an undeniable sense of polemic to begin with (business = bad) but when David arrives he’s able to provide another point of view.

We move into borderline telefantasy territory as Jenny stands in the middle of the forest and says “come on.” Miles away, David is visited by another vision of his father, who’s brought somebody with him – Jenny. She repeats the same words that she spoke in the forest, seemingly guiding David towards her.

The protesters are a colourful group, no doubt inspired by the exploits of Swampy a few years earlier. As they all sit around, somewhat depressed by the encroaching security, Jenny is encouraged to sing to them. Joanne Froggatt’s acapella song is yet another stand out moment, made all the more interesting as it’s partly overlaid with scenes of David’s travels. As he stops for a moment, it seems as if he’s following her singing – a striking use of non-diegetic sound.

When David turns up he rescues Jenny from drowning – except she wasn’t drowning at all (David was having a flashback to Anne-Marie’s death). As with his visions of his father, it’s another indication that his grasp on reality is somewhat skewed.

Although Jenny tells David that she can’t leave with him – as she has to stay and protect the trees, flowers and animals – he’s far from impressed with the way they’ve created a series of tunnels in order to try and halt the developers. “You’re digging under trees and pouring concrete and bits of metal down there! There’s no animals here. There’s no foxes or badgers, ‘cos you’ve driven them all away.” It’s a fascinating moment.

Richard Ridings as Ted, the sheriff charged with clearing out the protesters, is another excellent performer. Ted isn’t a cackling, evil monster – he loves the forest as much as anybody, but tells David that the runway development will go ahead because “people like to go on holiday. They want to fly their planes here, there and everywhere. They don’t want to sit by the lake.” He’s more of a rounded character than many of the protesters, who tend to be defined by their sloganeering and little else.

David, Jenny, Wack (Ged Hunter) and Donny (Stephen Taylor) take refuge in the tunnels once the contractors arrive in force. Donny, previously the figurehead of the protesters (and David’s rival for Jenny’s affections) is a different character once the claustrophobia of the tunnels begins to take hold. He’s revealed as something of a dilettante whilst Jenny’s passion burns just as bright. This isn’t a good thing though, as she’s prepared to risk her life in what appears to be a meaningless gesture. David agrees to go further undergeound with her, but not because he believes in what she’s doing – he just wants to be with her.

The final scenes of the third episode, as David and Jenny are entombed deep underground, are striking. Both Ingleby and Frogatt are mesmerising as the characters enjoy moments of solitude and intimacy, which contrasts sharply with the frantic efforts above ground as the contractors attempt to rescue them. David’s naked, mud-covered body is pulled out, but Jenny is still down there and he frantically pleads with them to go back for her …..

I’m not going to discuss the final episode in any detail, so that first-time viewers can discover Jenny’s fate (and also whether David finds his father) for themselves.  Although if you want to remain spoiler free I’d also recommend skipping the coming next montages on the first three episodes.  Coming next trailers are something of a curse of modern television and it’s interesting to ponder whether the ones on Nature Boy (lest we forget, made some sixteen years ago) are simply a very clumsy, early example of this trend or whether the clips were chosen deliberately as part of the overall story-telling experience.

The trailers for the first two episodes not only preview events from the next installment, but also look ahead to later episodes – which means that we always remain several steps ahead of the characters (especially David).  What leads me to suppose that there’s some thought been given to the choice of these clips is that some of them (especially the ones with Paul McGann) are rather misdirecting, especially the ones seen directly episode one.

If a slight weakness of Nature Boy is its episodic nature, then then sharpness of the scripting and performances more than compensates.  Lee Ingleby has a difficult role to play, as David is withdrawn and self-contained, but he manages to bring considerable light and shade to the troubled teenager.  Joanne Frogatt is equally as strong and all four episodes also boast numerous compelling one-off appearances from a host of quality actors.

That it won the 2001 Royal Television Society award for Best Drama is entirely merited and as it seems to have made a strong impression on many who watched it on its original broadcast, it’s very pleasing that it’s now available on DVD.  Simply’s release contains the four episodes (each approx 58 minutes) across two discs.  There are no issues with either the picture or sound.

Nature Boy is released by Simply Media on the 25th of April 2016.  RRP £24.99.

Doctor Who – Rose

archivetvmusings BBC Drama - 2000's , , , ,

rose

It’s somewhat astonishing to think that ten years have elapsed since Rose was transmitted.  But then, as somebody once said, time is relative.  In many ways, it’s difficult to rewatch any Doctor Who story and not be aware of the place it holds in the history of the series (i.e. what came before it, what was to come later).

But for those new viewers tuning in on the 26th of March 2005, Russell T. Davies had written Rose in such a way that it was possible to have a clear grasp of the fundamental aims of the show without having seen any previous episodes.  He’d clearly learnt the lessons from the TVM nine years earlier (which was an uncomfortable continuity-fest in many ways).

For us old hands, there were plenty of nods to the series’ past (Autons breaking through shop windows!) but never at the cost of alienting the new audience.  Rose was therefore a clean slate – with no previous baggage.  Of course, over the next ten years, Doctor Who would start to load all of the baggage back on (as soon as the show was an established success.)

Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your point of view.  There’s no denying, for example, that many people’s inner-fan was warmed by the return of Rassilon (and played by Timothy Dalton, no less) but too many returning elements from the series past will tend to stifle originality and creativity.  It’s often said that 1980’s Doctor Who was continuity-obsessed, but NuWho has been equally (if not more) guilty of the same crime.  But since NuWho is a ratings and critical success, it seems to be tolerated.

All this was in the future when Rose first aired.  Nobody knew how successful the series would be.  Many were convinced that the 2005 series would be the first and last of the revived show.  After all, Doctor Who (whilst it’s always maintained a small but vocal fandom) had been a critical punching-bag for the majority of time it had been on the air.  There had been good reviews from time to time (especially during the early Tom Baker years) but generally the show had acquired the air of a faded, shabby institution – tolerated at best, rather than loved by the BBC.  In its later years it still attracted love and affection from the fans – but more for what it had been, rather than what it was at the time.

The ratings success of Rose (9.9 million viewers) came as a surprise to many.  Of course, this was written off by some critics as simple curiosity – in the weeks to come, they said, the ratings would slide inexorably downwards.  But though there was the odd dip, usually during the weeks when the weather was at its best, the ratings held firm and the show was an undeniable hit.

Revisiting Rose after a number of years, it’s possible to see that it has many of the strengths (and the weaknesses) of NuWho in general.  It has a decent story (if a little vague in places) and it moves at a fast pace.  But this is part of the problem – as 45 minute stories will never allow for the same character development which the original series enjoyed.  Outside of the regulars, only Clive (Mark Benton) has any decent screen time – and his function is essentially to tell Rose (and the audience) exactly who the Doctor is.  NuWho would employ many fine guest actors, but the reduced running times of the stories tended to ensure that many were rather wasted.

Let’s rewind back to the start of the episode.  It hits the ground running and by the time we’re 120 seconds in, we have a good idea about Rose’s life.  She works in London (the big red buses are a giveaway!), lives with her mum, has a boyfriend and has a job in a department store.  Once these visual clues have been laid before us, the story proper can begin.

Rose is menaced by a collection of shop window dummies in the store’s basement and is rescued by a mysterious stranger.  He tells her that the dummies are living plastic and he intends to destroy their relay device on the roof.  Oh, and he introduces himself as the Doctor.

The Doctor does destroy the relay device (and most of the building as well).  It’s certainly a dramatic opening – although it begs the question as to whether the Doctor miscalculated the strength of the bomb or whether he simply didn’t care about the possible loss of life that might follow.

Christopher Eccleston was seen as a considerable casting coup, although the announcement (four days after the transmission of this episode) that he wouldn’t be returning for a second series did rather put a dampener on things.  He’s fine in this episode – not outstanding, just fine.  He never seemed totally at ease in the role – although this may be an inevitable consequence of knowing that his time in the role was already ticking away.

He does have some good moments though – the flat scene with Rose (where he’s in the background – examining his ears, fooling around with playing cards, etc) is nicely done as is the following scene which is clearly an important one, as it shows Rose beginning to understand who the Doctor is.  It starts with a long scene shot with no cuts (this lasts 1:20, which in modern television terms is an absolute age without a cut).

By this time, the idea that the Doctor has some connection to a small blue box has been made – although there’s still no assumption that the audience will know what it is or what it does.  That comes later, when it’s fully explained.

So now we’re 15 minutes in and the basics of the series have been established.  Mysterious plastic mannequins, a strange man who fights them (alone and without help) and a young shop-girl who’s been drawn inexorably into his orbit.  Although this is the second time that the Doctor’s left Rose behind, it’s inevitable that they’ll meet again – and already we’ve seen that they’ll make perfect travelling companions, as Rose appears to have little to keep her at home.  She obviously loves her mother (but is irritated by her at the same time) whilst her boyfriend is rather a dead loss.

This is one of the drawbacks of Rose.  It seems that the only way that Rose could be made such a strong character was by painting Mickey (Noel Clarke) as an ineffectual coward.  It really does him no favours at all, although later stories were able to redress the balance somewhat.

If the plot is gossamer thin (the Nestene Consciousness wishes to take over the world, because it can) it’s maybe inevitable this would happen, since establishing the main characters and the series format was the most important concern of story one.

In the end, it’s Rose that saves the day by rescuing the Doctor.  Did the Doctor actually need her help or was he subtly manipulating her?  It’s possible to view the scene in either way, but it’s true that once she has saved him, Rose feels more of a connection to the Doctor – which makes it more likely she’ll decide to accept his offer of travelling in the TARDIS.

Apat from the odd dodgy CGI effect, this has aged pretty well.  As the episode title suggests, Rose dominates and Billie Piper is pretty much perfect.  It’s a solid opener that didn’t attempt to be too ambitious and therefore gives the series a decent platform to build on.