The Thieving Headmistress (2006) (TV)

Director:

Norman Hull

Writers:

Lucy Bowden (writer)
Norman Hull (writer)

Release Date:

6 June 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A Headmistress steals from her own school. |

Cast

Naomi Allisstone	...	Pam
Peter Cellier	...	Father O'Malley
Denis Lawson	...	Father Plunkett
Pauline Quirke	...	Colleen McCabe
Mary Roscoe	...	Maureen Stapley
Hannah Walters	...	Ms Wallis

Runtime:

UK:60 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Firefly Film and Television Productions

A bland reconstruction of a real situation – but I'm not sure why they bothered

Having started her adult life as a nun, Colleen McCabe moved into teaching and found herself quite good at it. Her Catholicism marks her out at her faith school and, when the job of headmaster comes up, she applies for it and gets it. One of her first steps is to take the school away from the local authority and make it more of a private business. Of course with this certain financial controls are weakened or removed and Colleen allows herself the freedom to spend on her colleagues and herself. However what starts as expensive team meeting dinners turns into diamond rings and holidays for herself on the corporate credit card.

Although the end of the story is known, the film does a good job of undermining itself at the start when it reveals that nobody knows why Colleen did what she did. The theory seems to be personal greed but there is little to work with here and as a result the film struggles with the lack of depth. Knowing where it is all heading also takes all the tension and development out of it and makes it surprisingly dull. The narration makes it feel like more of a crimewatch reconstruction rather than a film – a feeling not helped by the lack of depth in the piece. Hull's direction is also lacklustre, framing shots in unimaginative ways and using a clunky and obvious "last supper" moment as his only attempt at invention.

The cast can't do much with their disjointed reconstructions. Quirke plays Quirke and never convinces as a real person. She works as a headmistresses type but she never gets beyond the window dressing – although her performance looks like a career best when compared to the horrid mess that she sings over the end credits. With her struggling to make anything of the character, nobody else stands much of a chance to standout. Support from Cellier, Lawson, Roscoe and others is all solid enough but nobody can produce what one would call a performance. I forget who the narrator was but he does the whole thing like he was the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – a comic touch that is out of place.

Overall a rather bland dramatisation of a real situation. With no tension, atmosphere or development, it just is a clunky reconstruction. With no insight and the means and ending already known, I'm not sure what the film was trying to achieve but if it aspired to be anything of value then I'm afraid it failed.