A very moving story, with characters who are easy to relate to. Choosing to film in the real bombed-out sections of London adds another layer of believability.
Mandy Miller plays the central role, a performance that reminds me of Natalie Wood, Margaret O'Brien, or Elizabeth Taylor in their child acting years. There is a certain professionalism mixed with a sincerity. The part is much more difficult than it may initially look, as Miller has to play not only a young girl's need for loving parents, but also a young girl trying to turn herself into her mother, to shut down emotionally in times of crisis, because that is all she knows.
Harcourt Williams gives a very tender performance as the old man Miller's character, and the other children in the neighborhood, befriend. His plight, so common then and now, is treated with a merciful lack of sentimentality,
While one could argue it's unfair for the script to put so much burden on the mother's inability to express love to her daughter, she is treated with some sympathy and, like everyone else in this episode, feels human, and complicated.
In many ways this story may have been a bit too complicated for one episode of an anthology show, but that makes it all the more impressive how much you find yourself caring, and how much the conclusion will move you, slightly rushed as it may be. This is a sea of honesty and nuance in a genre that so often lacks both.
Mandy Miller plays the central role, a performance that reminds me of Natalie Wood, Margaret O'Brien, or Elizabeth Taylor in their child acting years. There is a certain professionalism mixed with a sincerity. The part is much more difficult than it may initially look, as Miller has to play not only a young girl's need for loving parents, but also a young girl trying to turn herself into her mother, to shut down emotionally in times of crisis, because that is all she knows.
Harcourt Williams gives a very tender performance as the old man Miller's character, and the other children in the neighborhood, befriend. His plight, so common then and now, is treated with a merciful lack of sentimentality,
While one could argue it's unfair for the script to put so much burden on the mother's inability to express love to her daughter, she is treated with some sympathy and, like everyone else in this episode, feels human, and complicated.
In many ways this story may have been a bit too complicated for one episode of an anthology show, but that makes it all the more impressive how much you find yourself caring, and how much the conclusion will move you, slightly rushed as it may be. This is a sea of honesty and nuance in a genre that so often lacks both.