Buzzin TV

Anne Frank

The Diary Of Anne Frank – BBC One, 7pm

How nice to have a BBC drama of this quality shown at a convenient time and produced in an easy-to-view 5 night format. My son has recently studied Anne Frank at school and we were both looking forward to watching The Diary Of Anne Frank.

I have to applaud the BBC for the perfect scheduling, which enabled my son time to get his homework done and for both of us to eat dinner before sitting down together to thoroughly enjoy this dramatisation by Deborah Moggach.

All the actors involved gave superb performances escpecially Ellie Kendrick whose portrayal of Anne as a sometimes stoppy and selfish, feisty teenager whose determination not to follow in her mother’s footsteps is easily relatable today.

Tamsin Greig also gave an excellent performance as Anne’s dreary and fearful mother, Edith Frank. I wonder how like this she actually was in real life – a mother’s portrayal through the eye’s of a teenage daughter is never going to be a flattering one!

My only criticism is that the first four episodes almost had an Enid Blyton ‘Five Go Mad…’ feel to them. Even Otto with his arms covered in excrement trying to unblock the unusable lavatory was portrayed as a bit of a lark.

However, with prior knowledge of the dreadful fate that awaited all of the inhabitants the final episode had a totally different feel. With news of the allies gaining ground and the arrival of crates of fresh strawberries bring fresh hope to the group so that even Edith managed a smile we still knew their fate was inescapable.

In the final few minutes Anne suddenly became a shaking, frightened child again as the Frank’s, the Van Daan’s and Mr Dussel were led out of the building to certain death.

What a testament to Anne’s spirit, determination and talent that despite all adversity she still managed to achieve her ambtion to ‘live on after her death’ with the publication of her diary. A true inspiration.