Nativity 2: danger in the manger (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We have over thirty Christmas DVDs, and we like to see at least four or five of them each Christmas season. I pulled out the ones we hadn’t yet seen, or hadn’t seen in a while, and my husband selected ‘Nativity 2: danger in the manger’. We saw this film in December 2014, and I recalled being somewhat unimpressed at the time. It didn’t seem like a worthy sequel to ‘Nativity’, which we thought excellent.

However, we’ve been watching season two of Doctor Who, with David Tennant in the title role. So we thought it might be amusing to see him in the rather different role of classroom teacher in ‘Nativity 2’. And I was interested to see whether I would find it better or worse than I did ten years ago. 

The film opens to a domestic scene. David Tennant plays a young man called Donald Peterson who has just moved house and has a new job. His wife Sarah (Joanna Page) is expecting their first baby. He’s a bit concerned about the school where he’s going to work, but says that the head seems very pleasant, and she has assured him that the children are well-behaved.

The action then moves to the classroom, where Mr Poppy (Marc Wootten), the classroom assistant, is in charge. There have been several teachers replacing the excellent Mr Maddens and we see brief cameos as each one comes into conflict with one or other of Mr Poppy’s wild ideas. The children adore Mr Poppy, but he’s like an overgrown four-year-old and has no concept of boundaries, or of education. He only has the job because the headmistress (Pam Ferris) is his aunt. 

Clearly Mr Poppy should not have the job, despite his relationship to the head. Whereas we found him somewhat amusing in the first Nativity film, he is somewhat irritating in this one. He encourages the children to think they can take part (and win) a singing competition, despite lack of talent, and little time to rehearse. The head refuses permission but Mr Poppy goes ahead and applies. Then, when the day comes for the contest, he uses sneaky methods to get the children away - kidnapping Mr Peterson at the last moment, to accompany them.

The journey to Wales is fraught with mishaps, as might be expected. And it starts to delve into silliness as the ridiculous bus turns into a boat which then runs out of fuel, and the children have to embark on a long walk. Mr Poppy urges them to hurry at times, and insists they take breaks at others. The distance is shown as extremely long, and some of the children have to be carried. But most of them make it without seeming at all tired, and they’re somehow ready to perform when they eventually arrive.

There are some amusing scenes in this film. David Tennant is excellent in his role, so much so that we didn’t even think of him as the Doctor. He is an excellent actor who becomes the person he’s portraying - and we thought of him during this film as the young, rather apprehensive Mr Peterson. At least, we did until the appearance of Donald’s twin brother Roderick, a high-flying and very snooty choirmaster who  also has a competing group. 

They have not spoken to each other in years, and Donald has felt like a failure as their father (Ian McNiece) always favoured Roderick. David Tennant plays Roderick brilliantly, a tad caricatured (but then that's the nature of the film). Moreover, he does this so differently from the way he plays Donald that I sometimes forgot, for a moment, that the same actor was playing both brothers. 

In the last half hour or so of the film we get to see the other acts that are competing, performing their song and dance routines. A couple of them are (deliberately, we assume) pretty bad - twee, schmaltzy and with costumes in bad taste, although the singing and dancing as such is mostly good. Roderick expects to win with his highly trained boys’ choir, dressed as church choristers, and he isn’t averse to a bit of cheating…

And yet, despite the surreal nature of a lot of the film, it’s very well done. The pace is good, the timing is great, and the conversation - most of it improvised rather than scripted - realistic. The humour is somewhat slapstick, but we smiled several times and laughed once or twice. And the finale - which we had completely forgotten, after the concert - is moving, and encouraging, sharing (in a low-key way) the real meaning of Christmas. 

So despite the complete lack of compliance with safeguarding laws, with the head and parents having no idea where the children are, and the annoying nature of Mr Poppy, I liked it rather more than I did last time. David Tennant’s brilliance means I would recommend it on the whole and expect to watch it again in a few years time.  The rating is U which seems about right, although I don't suppose that very young children would find much to interest them in this film. 

There are a couple of extras, including some deleted scenes, on our DVD, which we thought well worth seeing after watching the film. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity (Martin Freeman)

(Amazon UK link)

Having decided to watch only Christmas-related DVDs during December, our choice fell on ‘Nativity’ last night. We first saw this rather unseasonably in July 2013 and while we recalled the general outline of the story, we had entirely forgotten most of the details.

Martin Freeman is excellent as the primary school teacher Paul Maddens. We see a brief cameo of him in his former life as an actor, with his girlfriend Jennifer (Ashley Jensen) and friend Gordon (Jason Watkins). None of them is enjoying their roles as dancing elves.. So Paul and Gordon retrain as teachers, and Jennifer flies to the United States, as her dream is to become a director or producer.

The main story takes place a few years later, when Gordon is a rather snooty teacher at a private school, while Paul is at the local state Catholic school. He’s still heartbroken by Jennifer’s defection, but he’s a fairly good teacher, albeit rather uptight and rigid in his classroom persona. Then he’s given two unwelcome surprises by the school head, Mrs Bevan (Pam Ferris). She announces that Mr Maddens is going to produce the school Nativity play that year, and that he’s having a new classroom assistant.

Paul is horrified at the thought of trying to pull the unruly children into any kind of presentation, and even more appalled when he meets Mr Poppy (Marc Wooten) who is like an overgrown child: full of wild ideas, ready to join in the children’s games and encourage them to ignore their teacher. It turns out that he’s Mrs Bevan’s nephew, so he can’t be fired. And gradually he and Paul do develop a kind of wary friendship.

The bulk of the story sees the children gradually pull together, with some ideas from Mr Poppy and some from Mr Maddens, and some from the children themselves. This is alongside seeing Graham’s ultra-posh and well-disciplined class determined that their performance will be better than ever. And there’s also an unfortunate consequence of a lie told by Paul, when he gets angry with Graham’s boasting… a lie that magnifies out of all proportion, as children, parents and staff expect something that’s never going to happen.

Apparently this film was not really scripted - the director had ideas, but gave the cast a lot of freedom to come up with their own lines. Even more surprising, the children are not from a stage school - they’re random children from ordinary backgrounds who auditioned for the roles - and as a result come across as a real, likeable class.

There’s a lot of humour, some of it slapstick as the two schools clash in a snowball fight, and some of it more subtle. Martin Freeman’s expressions are superb, conveying his emotions, at times, without any need for words. Some of Mr Poppy’s ideas are also amusing in their oddness, and some of the dialogue is unexpectedly funny too.

There’s also an important message about the importance of truthfulness, and the way that a silly lie, told on the spur of the moment, can grow to such an extent that dozens - maybe hundreds - of people can get hurt. We loved the way that the real message of Christmas shines through the glitziness and silliness, and the final performance (unsurprisingly) is extremely well done.

There's a low-key romantic thread too, involving a highly unlikely meeting in Hollywood and another during the school performance. But it doesn't matter. It's a bit schmalzy, but means there's another subplot involving Paul moving from a Scrooge-like hatred of Christmas to embracing it whole-heartedly.

Some of the extras are worth seeing, particularly the ‘deleted’ scenes, one of which is possibly my favourite ever deleted scene, involving the school priest talking to the children about lying.

Not to be taken seriously, but definitely recommended for light-hearted family viewing at this time of year.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity! (Martin Freeman, Marc Wootten, Jason Watkins)

(Amazon UK link)

Yes, it’s July.

But our son gets fed up of Christmas films and songs in December, so we decided to watch this highly rated movie last night. Perhaps, we thought, it might detract a little from the heat and humidity that plagued us...

It’s the story of a struggling Catholic school where Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is a frustrated and often irritable teacher of small children. Once upon a time he went through a drama course, appearing on stage as an elf, and in a serious relationship with the beautiful Jennifer (Ashley Jensen). But then she went to the US in the hope of becoming a Hollywood producer, and so Paul decided to become a teacher. He also determined that he would never enjoy Christmas again.

So he’s not at all happy when his school Head (Pam Ferris) decides that he will be in charge of the school Nativity play that term. To make it worse, Paul’s old college friend Gordon (Jason Watkins) is a teacher at a local private school, where he gets rave reviews each year for his Nativity plays. And while Gordon isn’t exactly a villain, he’s rather snooty about Paul’s school and his chances. So Paul, thoroughly provoked, pretends that Jennifer will be bringing a Hollywood crew to see his school play. he doesn’t mention that he lost touch with Jennifer some years previously.

He doesn’t really suppose that Gordon will believe him, or that anything will come of his remarks, but unfortunately they’re overheard by Mr Poppy (Marc Wootten) who is Paul’s new classroom assistant. Not a normal quiet helper, he’s like a big kid himself, joining in with the children with great enthusiasm, and trusting everything he’s told. So he passes on the ‘news’ to the school Head (his aunt)... and the press get involved... and the silly lie gets more and more out of hand.

Most of the play is about Paul’s attempts to produce a Nativity play - or, rather, a musical - using children with little or no experience. And it works remarkably well. I don’t mean that he eventually produces a wonderful extravaganza - that’s pretty much taken as read, with a family Christmas film. But the children themselves are an absolute delight.

We wondered how stage schools managed to produce such natural kiddies - and learned, when we watched one of the ‘extras’, that these were not stage school children, but ordinary ones, since the director wanted them to be natural. And that’s exactly what they are, although apparently the audition process took many months.

The film - as we also learned from the extras - was not closely scripted. Much of it was improvised, which probably explains why it really does feel like a typical British primary school, with a bunch of very ordinary children who, when gently pushed, do some fairly extraordinary things.

There are humorous scenes, one or two moving scenes, and a wonderfully schmaltzy ending which we had pretty much foreseen, although not entirely so. The whole is rated U (or G in the US), meaning that it’s entirely suitable for young children; certainly there’s no violence or bad language, and the romance, such as it is, consists of a few kisses and a little sliding about in snow.

There are some great performances by the children - they are all stars, and I hope that at least some of them have continued with their drama careers. The adults all play their parts well, with caricatures, admittedly - Paul Maddens is really very irritable, and Desmond Poppy so very boisterous - but it all works, and makes for a totally captivating hour and a half. Even if we did see it in July!

The extras - deleted scenes, interviews and ‘making of’ - are well worth seeing too.

Wonderful stuff. Don’t expect any depth of plot (although the point about a small lie growing out of control is well made) or character, or even any great surprises. Watch with your children or grandchildren, or perhaps your grandparents... and have a good clean laugh, and the satisfaction of a fairytale ending.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews