Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast Billy Kennedy, Temi Orelaja, Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Tim McInnerny, Felicity Montagu, Steve Speirs, Meera Syal, David Walliams, Aaron Chawla, Rosheen Hinze, Oliver Barry-Brook, Emma Cooke, Harish Patel, Sonny Ashbourne Serkis, Kate Moss, Gary Lineker, Alex Thomas.
The Boy in the Dress is one of those heart-touching moments of British television that no doubt will split the vast majority of Christmas viewers. It will inevitably also have those that purposefully avoided it have mini rages into their early morning cups of tea and spitting in annoyance at the thought of such a diverse subject being given air time.
Love him or loathe him, and it’s hard to understand why anyone would loathe David Walliams, you may as well declare an intolerance for sunshine or for snow in depths of Siberian winter; he knows his subject matter very well and in the television adaptation of his best-selling book, the realisation of giving a swift kick in the underbelly to any type of intolerance is one that is highly entertaining and gives viewers the thought that the old and rather outdated adage of “You are what you wear” is about as useful in modern society as the post Victorian hangover of keeping a stiff upper lip and not letting emotions get the better of you. That we should be judged on what we put over skin is almost an affront to decent thought. It is this type of thinking that allows resentment to breed.
Dennis is a young lad who has the type of complicated life that any near teenager can identify with. Being the best player on the football team but being unrecognised for his efforts, a fractured family and with a mother missing from the home and the unease in his soul that something is not quite right. It matters not that the overall subject matter is one of discovery at a new way of expressing himself, it could have been any trigger, what The Boy in the Dress shows is that there is still an overwhelming case that authority will have its way, that anyone not conforming to the supposed order is dangerous. To show individuality and freedom of thought outside of the supposed norm is as ridiculed as it was when the Punk movement first appeared on the scene.
The very sensitive story-line and at times rather remarkable filming is one that endears The Boy in the Dress as a great piece of television. It also offers a branch out to any child going through the same problems in which they can discuss hopefully without prejudice.
With Billy Kennedy giving a tremendous portrayal of the cross dressing Dennis, the highly enjoyable Temi Orelaja as his fashion conscious friend Lisa, James Buckley in good form as the disgruntled sports teacher Mr. Norris and the fantastic Tim McInnerny proving once again just how good an actor he is as the formidable and intimidating Headmaster Mr. Hawthorn, The Boy in the Dress is a television delight that shows the struggles that the young in 21st Century have. The idea of cultural identity, of where they fit into a world which at times seems to have forgotten them and the growing resentment many of them feel towards authority and its wielding of power. The Boy in the Dress may seem an innocent tale of discovery, but peel back the layers and David Walliams has opened a crack on society that has been glaring us in the face, the urge to banish any type of creative self expression by ridicule is one that cannot be continued. To dismiss someone because they are different is as repugnant now as it was to right-minded people when they saw what bullying and harassment led to in the 1930s.
A tremendous adaptation by a comic star!
Ian D. Hall