That Day We Sang

It sometimes seems that all films are made for teenagers - certainly the big box office ones are - but there's a growing counter-trend of producing stories for older audiences, as seen by releases such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and also TV shows like Last Tango in Halifax, and now That Day We Sang.

Scheduled over Christmas, it was one of those dramas where people occasionally break into song and dance routines.  We're not going to be uncharitable enough to say that that would never happen, and we enjoyed this rather tall tale of love among the 40 & 50-somethings.  Set in both the 1930s and the 1960s, it followed the life of gifted singer Jimmy (later Tubby) Baker, as he sang in Manchester's Youth Choir, and their greatest achievement, 'That Day We Sang' at the Manchester Free Trade Hall.

Clearly realism wasn't at the top of Victoria Wood's priorities when she wrote it, but she got good performances and real chemistry out of the two leads Michael Ball as Tubby and Imelda Staunton as Enid (great to see a love story where the woman is older than the man too!).  Harvey Chaisty, who played the young Jimmy was also very good, even if he doesn't bear much resemblance to Michael Ball (which might explain why Enid doesn't recognize him for almost the entire film...).

It seems to have been very well received on IMDB (8.3 rating at time of writing) and by the senior members of the family.  It's probably easy for determined cynics to mock, but a successful production for post-Christmas Day viewing.