Anita & Me, BBC2, Friday, 12am.
FILM OF THE WEEK:
There are plenty of big movies on this week which could have slotted perfectly into this column, but sometimes it’s those little movies made for next to no cash that linger longest in the mind.
Such is the case with Anita&Me, a micro-budget, coming-of-age comedy.
Metin Husseyin’s nostalgic rites-ofpassage offering, based on the best-selling novel by Meera Syal, traces the fortunes of two teenagers rebelling against their parents and expectations.
Meena (Chandeep Uppal) lives with her parents in the exotic surroundings of a rural English village during the 1970s, and is torn between her family’s Punjabi traditions, and the escape of rock ‘n’ roll.
Trouble rides into town in the shapely form of tearaway teenage temptress Anita (Anna Brewster), who loves to tease the boys and to thieve from the local sweet shop.
“That was a really happy film actually, a real labour of love,” explained Meera, during a recent bout of publicity for the Broadchurch: series two DVD.
“None of us got paid and it was one of those things that took a long time to get on, but I’m so glad we persevered, and the reason we got such an amazing cast, Kathy Burke and Mark Williams and the late, wonderful Lynn Redgrave, was just because they all loved the book. I felt really lucky to have got that off the ground.”
If this leaves you hungry for more, the good news is there’s a stage version at Birmingham Rep opening in the autumn.