User Reviews

(Spoilers are here; beware them.)

This was really quite above the average ITV 'drama' fare - though I loved the few episodes I saw of the frenetic charmer "At Home With The Braithwaites" - actually managing to engage and do a few unusual things.

Nothing major or grand; hardly as enjoyable a lark as the above recent ITV show, but this is helped enormously by the splendid Ken Stott. An actor known for dour Scottish stoicism and police-series control plays a down-and-out with a life completely out of control, who in some sense takes on a new lease of life. His stringent, yearning progress towards the renaissance man he becomes is all dealt with very deftly.

The ending of course throws things into doubt; rendering the previous drama (and comedy - Kevin Whately's cloddish officer constantly made a fool of, and a few moments of moving joie de vivre from Stott's 'Mike') ambiguous: the last-gasp sentimental dreams of a dying man? In his last few seconds, a recovery route is planned, through a fanciful yet grounded tale... all plotted out in his head from glancing at faces about him, after his accident.

So, a cheery Christmas romantic drama that at essence maybe is not so cheery; it is the portrayal of a repenting, desperately sorry soul. Yet the soul is doomed to a quick death. For a show to play such games with an ITV audience usually pandered to with the lowest common denominator and endless familiarity, is brave and laudable. There are typical ITV drama moments in this piece's middle, but the fact that it is a construction of the central character, is wonderfully subversive. Overall, a worthy, thoughtful piece; rarely at all great, but modest and affecting. Full marks to Ken Stott for his performance, too.

One suspects that Dennis Potter may have influenced the writer in this clever piece of surreal drama. The human brain is capable of playing many tricks on us and some of the reviewers who could not understanding the ending missed the whole point of the play. A dream that can seem to last for hours may have in fact been the product of a few seconds of brain activity and in my mind, the writer was attempting to convey this. Ken Stott looked as though he had lots of fun with his role and a strong supporting cast of familiar faces made this good viewing. Excellent thought provoking drama and the best thing we've had on TV in NZ for quite a while.

contains major spoilers! my mum, sister and I watched this on the evening of Christmas Day, 2006 (maybe its first screening in Australia?). we weren't planning on watching anything, but I turned on the tele about ten minutes into it, and we just got caught up in the story. Ken Stott and Lesley Manville were brilliant, and all the actors were great. the characters were really interesting - the Salvation Army soldiers, the recovering alcoholics - all seemed like three-dimensional, complex people, even if they didn't have much time on screen. I loved Mike's hallucinations/imagined/spiritual experiences - and the writing and editing were great - the jumps in time disorienting the audience just enough to give a sense of Mike's confusion, without being annoying. the romantic triangle was fascinating - I felt for all the characters, even poor Nigel. but what the hell happened at the end? when Mike was raising the bottle of gin to his lips, and Annie was racing towards the building yelling "Nooooo!", I though 'she's going to get hit by a bus' (which would bookend neatly with him being hit at the beginning)- but then it went back to him having been hit, and made it seem like the Entire Story was imagined by him as he lay there dying. what!?!? that's worse that ending it with 'and then he woke up'. can anyone tell me what happened?

Although this film was excellently acted, it contributes to the general media portrayal of the Christian church as hypocritical and Pharisaical. The Catholic church, the Anglicans etc. but now the Salvos also get a blast. According to this film, you only have joy if you break the rules, a common misunderstanding for which our society is reaping a devastating harvest of suffering and dislocation. This production presents 'Promoted to Glory' in the light of the harshest irony because, its message is that there is no glory beyond the grave or before it either. It beguiles the viewer into thinking that hope can exist despite evil only to erode that hope with the most hackneyed and contrived of endings. Not recommended if you want to experience the hope of Christmas cheer or suffer from a down mood at Christmas!

When I saw the preview I thought it looked interesting.

A story about a homeless drunk falling in love. How sweet. A typical Christmas drama. Starring Ken Stott probably best known for Messiah and The Vice and Kevin Whately famous for Morse's sidekick Lewis. I thought it would be an interesting piece of viewing.

The story itself is good, original, sweet, easy to follow and well acted.

But then...the twist. I won't give any spoilers but I just didn't understand the twist. The ending was very strange, a friend described it as 'almost sixth sense like'. It just seemed as though the last scene had made the last two hours all rather pointless.

Despite the very disappointing ending it was well acted and watching Ken Stott play a haplessly in love ex- alcoholic was highly amusing

SPOILER WARNING! The film is beautifully made and the acting is outstanding. The ending came as a surprise even though there was plenty of foreshadowing: a tramp is hit by a bus, then is almost instantly transported outside the office of the beautiful woman who tried to save him. No explanation of what happened in the interim. He wonders if he is dead, and then has a series of remarkable experiences. The acting and direction is so skillful that I almost didn't notice that everything is firmly based around the nameless tramp: he is either in a scene or is being discussed in it. He is everything he ever wanted: funny, attractive, liked, respected and loved. He wins the girl of his dreams and lives happily...

Has anyone else noticed several possible allusions throughout the film towards the famous film by Orson Welles, Citizen Kane? Like this film, it has been speculated that everything in the film Citizen Kane was the dying man's dream; images of swirling snow abound; the name 'Hurst' is included albeit spelled differently; the protagonist's wife was named 'Rose' while Kane's last word was 'rosebud'. A newspaper in the front of the bus that hits Mike shows an article referring to a sporting achievement by someone with the same name as the protagonist. Citizen Kane was a newspaper magnate .... are the writers hinting that they are sporting with us by including the newspaper? Is this all a bit of a stretch?