Hear My Song DVD, 1991

What a curious career Peter Chelsom has had! How could the director of this whimsical charmer have gone on to make such a craven corporate clunker as Hannah Montana: The Movie?

Although it’s usually labelled Ealingesque, Hear My Song owes more to the spirit of Bill Forsyth as it follows Liverpudlian impresario Adrian Dunbar to Ireland to make good his promise to Shirley Anne Field to top the bill with Josef Locke, the legendary tenor with whom she had a fling before he fled the country in 1958 to avoid a tax evasion charge.

However, Locke proves as elusive as Harry Lime and when Dunbar does track him down, he takes some persuading to risk a reunion with dogged copper David MacCallum. Whether turning his jacket inside out to assuage the little people or being dragged across a field by a runaway cow, Dunbar makes a genial anti-hero and there’s no shame in being upstaged by Ned Beatty as the fiercely reclusive showman.

Chelsom directs beautifully; cinematographer Sue Gibson’s verdant vistas and smoky interiors are superb. Quite simply, a joy.

David Parkinson on 1st July 2009
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The picture quality is very good, but it's a shame that the opening scene where Micky's mother dies of cancer in hospital has been cut. It wasn't cut for the video rel... more >

The picture quality is very good, but it's a shame that the opening scene where Micky's mother dies of cancer in hospital has been cut. It wasn't cut for the video release in the early '90s, so why cut it for the long awaited DVD? < less