Billy Whiz

Rating: 6/10 (28 February 2001)

Nineteen eighty four/eighty five was an emotional time for me. Thankfully I wasn't losing my job down a mine, or my very life on a football terrace. But sons were coming thick and fast, and my idealistic vision for their future was fast being shattered by grim reality. And so the dual dramas of parent/child and system/individual in Billy Elliot quickly found vulnerable flesh in me. Only after a settling gulp did I start to see the wider picture. This is OK stuff - but just a little shmultsy. The artistic kid from the wrong side of the tracks? Surely Monty Python in the seventies, or Beyond the Fringe in the sixties, parodied this into ridicule? Nevertheless the Bell boy was a great (dancing) star and his disgruntled frowns were adequate acting. I'm afraid I can't say the same about his support, especially Julie Walters, for whom this seemed an exercise in stock character acting, without any real relevance to the rest of the plot.

Ron (Viewed 2Oct00)
PS Needless to say the boys would now never dream of a job which required any physical labour and, although football has captured their imagination, a Â£40 a match season ticket and a prawn sandwich is their greatest aspiration. Sigh!