Sadly Over-hyped

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

My son and me really enjoyed this very funny adaption of Professor Branestawm and it did not disappoint.Great family fun and Harry Hill's portrayal of the Professor was spot on, the supporting cast were brilliant too especially Simon Day as Colonel Dedshot and Vicki Pepperdine as Mrs Flittersnoop.Charlie Higson's adaption are faithful to the books, taking elements from different stories and creating something new and bringing the character of Connie (Mrs Flittersnoop's niece) to the front of the story and the inventions are of the quality of the W.Heath Robinson illustrations that do feature in the original book.It did make me go and buy the original books. The scene where the photographs come alive made me and my son cry with laughter and funnily enough when we read the scene in the original book it caused the same emotion.Bonkers and brilliant. One of the best eccentric characters in literature, up there with Worzel Gummidge.Recommended. I felt I needed to give a review of this show and the sequel as the reviewer know as HonestReviews wrote a very unfair review and should know that there is an off button on there television set.

I had not really seen the star and writer of TV Burp do any acting, only in his self-titled movie, which was not very good, but at Christmas time I saw the advert for this TV made film based on the popular children's books, and I was looking forward to seeing how it would be. Basically in the town of Great Pagwell, Professor Branestawm (Harry Hill) is a most eccentric and absent-minded inventor always working in his "Inventory", many of his bizarre inventions often either malfunction or work in unexpected ways, his friends and allies are Colonel Dedshott (Simon Day) of the Catapult Cavaliers, and his housekeeper Mrs. Flittersnoop (Vicki Pepperdine). He is a man of simple tastes with a shiny bald head and five pairs of spectacles – one for reading, one for writing, one for out of doors, one for looking at you over the top of and a fifth pair for looking for the others on the frequent occasions when they get lost, and he makes a new friend and apprentice in schoolgirl Connie (Madeline Holliday). Professor Branestawm is however thought of as a menace to the peace and wellbeing of the town, especially by officious local councillor Harold Haggerstone (David Mitchell) who questions the legality of his experimenting and inventing, and businessman Mr. Bullimore (Ben Miller) who wants to destroy his workshop and build a giant munitions factory, right in the middle of town. Professor Branestawm and Connie, while continuing to invent new-fangled creations, with some of them causing chaos to the townspeople, try to find a way to prove he is permitted to remain in Great Pagwell, with a signed deed to appeal to Haggerstone and The Mayor (Charlie Higson, also writing), in the end, with the appearance of invented liquid that brings photographs to life and a mad robotic father figure in the scene, the permission is approved. Also starring Miranda Richardson as Miss Blitherington, Sophie Thompson as Aggie and Adrian Scarborough as The Vicar. Hill being naturally bonkers is a great choice for the leading character, the supporting stars like Day, Mitchell and Miller do well in their parts also, filled with some special effects and magical events, strange things going and created and plenty of slapstick and oddball jokes this is something all the family can relax in front of, a fun comedy fantasy. Worth watching!

Having sat through the truly awful Gangsta Granny last year, I hoped this time the BBC would have made a better Christmas TV movie. After all Gangsta Granny was so bad, surely it couldn't be hard to make something better. Boy was I wrong. This is possibly the worst TV movie/film I have ever seen. It's so bad I feel compelled to write this review and rate it 1 Star multiple times based on how terrible this utter garbage really is. Seriously how did someone at the BBC watch this and allow it to be aired? This is so bad it makes me angry. The actors in this are good actors; with the likes of Ben Miller and David Mitchell, two of my favourite people on television so why the hell did they agree to do this? One can only assume it was for the money.There is not ONE funny moment in the story. It's so ridiculously stupid. All the "jokes" are so childish and pathetic, it's just not funny at all, you won't laugh once. The story didn't make sense, the characters were all unlikable, I found myself routing for the bad guy and wishing all the good characters would get killed off. It must have been edited together by a monkey I can only assume as any sane person would know this story doesn't make the remote bit sense. Even the CGI was terrible, the flames looked so fake and weren't even properly in place. The actors we know are good, but because the directing and script was so terrible it makes them look poor. Their lines are so cheesy. How many times is that stupid colonel going to say that same line about Mitchell's character? It's not funny.What's with the black policeman always crashing his bike and being ignored by everyone? Felt like kind of subtle racism to me and wasn't in the least bit funny. The worst bit however is the deal with the robot at the end hitting David Mitchell's character with people laughing as he's attacked? Wow that is assault! This film is actually encouraging and supporting assault and saying it's OK? Yeah what a great message for kids. This movie has a perfect moral message for children!Please don't watch this utter vile unfunny trash. The people I feel sorry for the most are the actors. They will forever be shamed with having starred in this terrible mess. Especially the child actor. I wonder what she'll think when she looks back at this in ten years time? It will tragically end her career I fear and she'll feel ashamed for ever having agreed to be in this. Shame on the director and anyone else involved in the making of this mess, hang your heads in shame at wasting a lot of time and money on something so terribly bad.

Professor Branestawm is based on a character created by author Norman Hunter in the 1930s who wrote a series of books featuring him over the years. As I knew little of Professor Branestawm I thought the infamous Leeds footballer of the 1970s, Norman 'bites yer legs' Hunter had carved another career post-retirement!Branestawm is what might be termed the original absent minded professor, whose strange inventions tend to go disastrously wrong. His housekeeper Mrs Flittersnoop and his dim but loyal comrade Colonel Dedshott are usually on hand to come to his rescue.Some of the local dignitaries have had enough of the zany Professor and one of the rogue Councillor's is in cahoots with a bullyboy corporate mogul who wants to build a munitions factory in the village and destroy its way of life and get shot of the professor at the same time.Its up to a school girl Connie already fed up with her teacher at school who is hell bent on holding girls back from learning science to stop the bully boys from pulling the plug on the Professor and his contraptions.Harry Hill takes the starring role as the very bespectacled Professor Branestawm who fits well with the zaniness as well as being the social outsider, finding hard to communicate with people but for his few friends.The film is certainly charming, its adapted by comedy actor and noted author Charlie Higson who also appears in the film. However it felt a little too aimed at the kids rather than a family audience and it also felt rather cumbersome with its humour. Still I would like to see more of the televised adventures featuring the Professor.