FRIDAY 23 MARCH
Drama
A Class Apart
8:30pm - 10:00pm
BBC1
VIDEO Plus+: 73994
Subtitles, audio description, widescreen
It's probably wise to view this one-off drama by Tony Grounds (of Births, Marriages and Deaths) as a fairy tale, though it wants to be seen as grittily realistic. Jessie Wallace plays noisy, working-class single mum Candy (not exactly a stretch for EastEnders' erstwhile noisy, working-class single mum Kat Slater/Moon), who's trying to keep her dim yob of a son out of trouble. When he fails to get into the state secondary school of his mum's choice, she protests - attracting the attention of the posh head of a posh private school (played by Inspector Lynley, Nathaniel Parker). The head bets his deputy (suave Roger Allam, the best thing here) that the boy will flourish at the school, and secures him a place. Candy isn't grateful. Oh no, she has no truck with airy-fairy academia, and makes her views painfully, repeatedly, tiresomely clear. Be prepared to negotiate your way through a torrent of class-war clichés, and a love story so unlikely that your eyes will pop from their sockets.
RT reviewer - Alison Graham
Candy Jerome - Jessie Wallace
Anthony Troth - Nathaniel Parker
George - George Cole
Kyle Jerome - Sanchez Adams
Charles - Roger Allam
Olivia Troth - Juliet Aubrey
Godfrey - Paul Brooke
Ruth - Ruth Sheen
Lin - Carol Moses
Mrs Fills - Mary Tamm
Angela - Harriet Eastcott
Dom Robertson - Ross Tomlinson
Mrs Collins - Natasha Joseph
Mr Evans - Tony Grounds
Mandy - Lorraine Stanley
Head teacher - Chris Larner
Eileen - Jessica McConkey
Trevor - Jay Brown
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