The first St Trinian's was the largest-grossing independant UK film after Four Weddings & A Funeral and this second installment debuted at number two in the UK Box Office (behind Avatar). The story is somewhat crazy (the ending twist is a kind of...what on earth?). In around 1589, Pirate Fritton (Rupert Everett) robs Lord Pomfrey (David Tennant) of his treasure, in order to prevent Pomfrey attempting to overthrow the Queen of England. In 2009, the new term is starting at St Trinian's School for Girls. Camilla Fritton (Rupert Everett) appoints her niece Annabelle Fritton (Talulah Riley) as Head Girl. It is Annabelle's task to try and control all the various cliques at the school. These include the 'Rude Girls' led by Bianca (Zawe Ashton) the 'Posh Totty' led by Chelsea (Tamisn Egerton) the 'Emos' led by Zoe (Montserrat Lombard), the geeks led by Lucy (Ella Smith) and the new girl Roxy (Sarah Harding).
Although this seems futile, when Celia (Juno Temple) is discovered in the library searching for a ring for a mysterious caller who has offered £20,000 for the ring, the girls soon are excited about a new task. When the caller appears in the school, he is revealed to be Piers Pomfrey (David Tennant), leader of AD1-an secret sexist society-and Charity Tsar, who has come to reclaim his ancestors treasure. With the help of Camilla's old flame Jeffrey (Colin Firth) and the ex-Head Girl Kelly (Gemma Arteton) the girls are soon on the bad guys tail , discovering that all cliques can work together (for now). Rupert Everett is incredibly camp as the head mistress and Colin Firth is pretty good sport as her/his love interest. David Tennant is, as usual, brilliant as the bad guy, even if he is sporting a rather intriguing hairstyle. Talulah Riley, Juno Temple & Gemma Arterton all put in fine performances, proving that they are probably ones to watch-Riley has previously appeared as Mary Bennett in the Keria Knightley Pride & Prejudice and in The Boat that Rocked along with the first of these St Trinian's films; Temple is appearing again as Celia, having performed in Atonement with Keria Knightley & James MacAvoy, Wild Child and The Other Boleyn Girl and Arterton has been seen as the title character in the BBC's Tess of the D'Ubervilles and in the most recent James Bond film-Quantom of Solace. The major flaw acting-wise is Sarah Harding of Girls Aloud, who appears in pretty much every scene looking TOTALLY out of place in a school-she looks older that Arterton, and is incredibly wooden. Whilst the story is pretty flimsy, there are a couple of good laughs ('Death is like life, but without the crap things, like poverty, facism and Miley Cyrus'). Not a bad way to spend an hour and a bit.
David Tennant seems to have cast a spell over the producers at the BBC, as he comes to the end of his stint as the title character in Doctor Who (in which he is totally brilliant), he has hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks, appeared on QI and Desert Island Discs and is hosting a special Radio 2 programme featuring him and Russell T Davies (who is also finishing with Dr Who).
However, for me the best thing about the BBC's current love of all things Tennant is the fact that they broadcast a special television production of the RSC's production of Hamlet which he starred in last year. This production, directed by Gregory Doran, is a modern dress, modern day interpretation, with the idea of spying seen through CCTV cameras.
It is certainly a fresh look at the tale, considering I've spent the months since September reading the text and watching the rather dull Mel Gibson lead 1990 film version for A-Level coursework reasons.
In case you don't the story, Hamlet (David Tennant) is the Prince of Denmark, the son of the recently deceased King and Gertrude (Penny Downie). Gertrude has recently, rather hastily, remarried. Specifically, she has married Hamlet's uncle, Claudius (Patrick Stewart), and this action, mixed with the death of his father sets Hamlet up at the beginning to be a deeply saddened man, even contemplating suicide. He is then bought the news from his good friend Horatio (Peter de Jersey) that the watch have seen his father's ghost (also Patrick Stewart) walking the battlements. Behind all this, the Machavellian Polonius (Oliver Ford Davies) sends his son Laertes (Edward Bennett) off to France to restart his studying, whilst using his daughter Ophelia (Mariah Gale)-who Hamlet is apparently in love with-to strengthen his realtionship with the new King.
Whilst this version can definitly not be said to 'dumb down' the language or structure at all (indeed, I'm sure there is added dialogue) it could have been disconcerting to the TV viewer who may not have encountered Hamlet before (I was giving basic translations to my parents of some sections of dialogue)
The cast are mostly first class. Tennant's roots lie in Shakespeare, and his ease at delivering the soloiques is clear, it is quite the departure from playing The Doctor and he is captivating until the end (and I had tears in my eyes in the final scene). Stewart was good, but did not seem quite menacing enough for Claudius. Ford Davies was a fine Polonius and de Jersey (currently in the Debbie Allen revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ) made Horotio a 3D and very interesting character. Edward Bennett was a fine Laertes, and it would have been interesting to see his Hamlet, especially considering he had the unenviable task of covering for Tennant when he was injured during the Novello run of this production. Mariah Gale did not seem settled into Ophelia, she seemed too modern to be as passive as the text suggests, yet she was good in the 'mad' scene.
Thumbs up must also go to Sam Alexander and Tom Davey as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, characters that appear somewhat dull in the play are given full personalities here. Ryan Gage also gives an entertaining appearance as Osric and David Ajala has great comic timing as Reynaldo.
Apparently, a Patrick Stewart led production of Macbeth is also on its way to the BBC and it would be interesting to see whether this influx of Shakespeare will lead to more plays making their way onto the main channels, rather than being relegated to BBC4 and Sky Arts.
