February 11, 2023

This really only works as a piece of nostalgia, nowadays - but it has a gentle charm to it that illustrates a semblance of community spirit (and mischievous bloody-mindedness) that just about keeps it watchable for an hour. It all centres around a local campaign to save the one remaining gas lamp in a small community. This lamp requires the services of a full-time lamp-lighter and the council have decreed that electric lighting is cheaper and mor… read the rest.

This really only works as a piece of nostalgia, nowadays - but it has a gentle charm to it that illustrates a semblance of community spirit (and mischievous bloody-mindedness) that just about keeps it watchable for an hour. It all centres around a local campaign to save the one remaining gas lamp in a small community. This lamp requires the services of a full-time lamp-lighter and the council have decreed that electric lighting is cheaper and more efficient. Councillor "Jack" (Francis Matthews) is the principal driver of this change and when he infiltrates a protest meeting he falls for "Lisa" (Mary Clarke) and perhaps romance can blossom - despite the fact that they are on different sides of the argument? Meantime, this proposed change is all very much to the chagrin of the "Potts" siblings (Ian Fleming and Amy Dalby) who have a bit of history when to comes to dealing with unwelcome problems - and Hoover salesmen. Poor "Jack" is now on their radar, and things look pretty perilous for him. There is a fun and well written dynamic between the "Potts" but they don't have quite enough screen time to sustain the rest of the mediocre acting and a really rather flat effort from Miss Clarke. I did rather enjoy the ending, though, and it's still worth watch.

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