Grow Your Own film review

certificate_PG

GROW YOUR OWN

Regarded as one of Britain's pre-eminent screenwriters, Frank Cottrell Boyce's work over the last ten years has included the superlative 24 Hour Party People and the memorable Hilary and Jackie. It's unlikely that Grow Your Own will be remembered as one of his finest works, as it gives the impression of being rushed to placate the BBC execs that presumably thought they were onto a winner.

In his depiction of race relations between a group of English allotment farmers and some immigrant families that are imposed on them as part of a project, Cottrell Boyce's screenplay reflects little of modern British society. Of course racism and prejudice exist, but this over-simplified would-be comedy portrays its events in such a black and white and unbelievable manner that most intelligent audiences are likely to find it both insulting and patronising.

A group of predominantly white allotment growers get the jitters when Chinese, African and Asian families are given plots on their smallholding to make them feel part of British culture. The strangers are regarded with a sense of fear and discomfort more in line with 1950s Britain than the 21st century, and the regulars do everything they can to place obstacles in their way. All apart from an Asian doctor who serves a purpose by diagnosing ailments in his shed.

Matters come to a head when a mobile phone company decides to place a mast in the allotment (it's not hard to figure out whose pieces of land are going to be given up), and the immigration services arrive to heavy-handedly arrest one of the familes for deportation.

Actors of calibre such as Eddie Marsan and Olivia Colman are given one dimension to work with, while only Benedict Wong evokes any sympathy as the disturbed Chinese father.

This is, to put it bluntly, a shocking waste of both license payers' money and national lottery funds, and those responsible for producing it should really take a good look at the world around them: it certainly doesn't mirror anything in the final film. A British effort that sadly should be hidden away as it offers nothing except a false impression of what actually happens in this country.

Paul Hurley