Mr Harvey Lights a Candle
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE, Saturday 26 March at 10.05pm
Introduction
Timothy Spall stars as a teacher coming to terms with his past during a school trip in Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE's uplifting drama, Mr Harvey Lights a Candle, to be shown this Easter.
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Celia Imrie and Ben Miles also star as his fellow teachers Miss Davies and Mr Cole.
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The film features Natalie Press as troubled schoolgirl Helen.
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Press recently won the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Newcomer for her role in the critically-acclaimed My Summer of Love.
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When the shambling, distant Mr Harvey - unaffectionately known to his class as Mr Happy - steps onto the coach at the start of a chaotic day out to Salisbury Cathedral, he little expects that by the end of the trip he will have opened up to his colleagues and pupils about events which have had a profound effect on his life.
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In doing so, he finds a way to finally put the past behind him and renew his connection with the present.
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And as the uproarious trip unfolds, with Miss Davies and Mr Cole trying to keep control of the unruly pupils, he is not the only one to get a glimpse of something greater than all of them and find a spark of comfort and new understanding.
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Mr Harvey Lights a Candle is the first television piece from successful author Rhidian Brook, best-known for his novels Jesus and the Adman and The Testimony of Taliesin Jones.
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Executive producer Laura Mackie says: "It's a colourful, energetic film which at its heart is a life-affirming story about people's need for something bigger in their lives.
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"It's the kind of school trip from hell we've all been on, with a few jaded teachers trying to shepherd bored kids around some site of cultural significance they couldn't care less about.
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"But for a few, the day out has life-changing results."
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Writer Rhidian Brook says: "There's a distance between pupils and teachers, a sort of personal space.
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"Children don't really know about their teachers' private lives, they just don't imagine their teachers having sex and relationships and all the other things that normal people do. They're in a different category.
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"So to bung them altogether - which is what school trips do for a day - and actually force them to engage with some of the issues that either side are facing is interesting.
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"Mr Harvey is a character whose life has been defined by a tragic event in his past and facing that tragedy is actually the key to his health and happiness.
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"He's slightly denied the effect it's had on him which, apart from making him emotionally frozen and dead, it cuts off what was very important to him - which was his faith.
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"It's a perfect drama for Easter because in a way it's asking the big question, which is what is this for? Why are we going to this building? What does it really mean? What is a religious experience.
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"It's not just about Mr Harvey - it's about those kids who go on that trip, many of them, like we all used to be, bored out of our heads and rather reluctant, but obviously one or two of them make a connection on that trip with something deeper."
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Filmed on location at Salisbury Cathedral and various locations around London, Mr Harvey Lights a Candle is produced by Paul Rutman (The Secret) and directed by Susanna White (Teachers, Larkin:Love Again).
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The executive producers are Hilary Salmon and Laura Mackie.
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