Nature Boy

Stick with this one - the opening episode is one of the grimmest things you'll see on TV but the four-hour drama is well worth your time. It's complex and ultimately deeply moving, following sensitive runaway David on a kind of modern oddyssey to find his father, who disappeared when he was a child. Heavy, thoughtful, but rewarding.

This is one of those BBC films you simply can't afford to lose.

The main character, David (superbly played by Lee Ingleby)is on a quest to find the father that left when he was a small child (Paul McGann, mostly in feedbacks). He ends up trekking the countryside under threat and the industrial areas who can't be bothered with ecology. But there's Jenny, there's a band of eco-guerrillas - full of good intentions but lacking David's lifelong experience in dealing with Nature.

The end is not predictable, certainly not from my point of view... The overall impact on one's emotions is overwhelming.

See this one!

"David"is a teenage boy who is at ease with the world of nature but less so with people.He is living with a family under the auspices of social services and determined to locate his father who left him and his estranged,drug dependent mother.He takes to the road,meets a young eco activist in Jenny,dallies with an MP's wife and becomes embroiled in an environmental protest in the course of which Jenny is seriously injured.The drama is inevitably a little episodic given it was originally a four part drama and it does not always avoid the "its grim up North lad" stereotype .Indeed "Radio Times" declared somewhat unfairly that it made misery into an art form

Lee Ingleby is ideal casting as David with the lean body and haunted eyes of a seeker albeit not a pacifist-David is handy with the fists if need be and has no compunction about dishing out retribution if he deems it necessary

The ending was a bit weak in my view but it is still a satisfying slice of naturalist drama of the kind the BBC used to do so well so regularly

This was an interesting examination of a number of themes. The overriding theme seemed to be searching: the main character, David, was searching not only for his father but also himself. During this journey environmental issues were discussed. Some of the imagery used was very good. This runs with the naturalist image he portrayed. The actor who played David should be congratulated on his performance - he was excellent.