Swallows and Amazons – Film Review by Emily Elphinstone

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Writers: Andrea Gibb, Arthur Ransome (based on the book by)
Stars: Kelly Macdonald, Andrew Scott, Rafe Spall

Based on the classic children’s series by Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons follows the Walker family as they get the train north for an idyllic summer holiday in the Lake District. Staying with Mr and Mrs Jackson (the wonderfully deadpan Harry Enfield and Jessica Hynes), the Walker children soon head out on an adventure in the dinghy ‘Swallow’, to camp on the island in the centre of one of the great lakes. Good hearted high-jinks ensue, involving the threat of pirates, battles with rivals ‘The Amazons’, and the disastrous moment when the supplies are lost overboard.

This nostalgic adventure may have a very different pace from the more contemporary rollercoaster rides that abound in family films today, but it is nonetheless thrilling from beginning to end. Writer Andrea Gibb departs slightly from the original story, changing the younger girl’s name to Tatty rather than Titty; and adding a subplot of Hitchcockian espionage inspired by Ransome’s own MI6 career. This may sound like a dangerous departure from the original series’ famously low-key and innocent adventures; but Gibbs’ inspired approach endows the capture of enemy vessel ‘Amazon’, with just the same sense of peril as dealing with adult spies armed with guns: It’s all jolly good fun in the end.

Carrying much of the film, John (Dane Hughes), Susan (Orla Hill), Tatty (Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen), and Roger (Bobby McCullogh) have a believable chemistry as the siblings, playing their roles on board with great aplomb in matching navy jumpers and plimsolls, while still showing peaks of rivalry, vulnerability, and questionable cookery skills. This is contrasted nicely with the subplot of Jim ‘Captain Flint’ Turner (A dashing moustache clad Rafe Spall) who is hunted by enemy agents Lazlow and Zukin (Andrew Scott and Dan Skinner) all relishing the chance to ‘play’ at pre-war espionage complete with motorcycle sidecars, binoculars, and a chase through a train.

Phillipa Lowthorpe’s direction provides a remarkably unified whole. The characters (including charmingly understated Kelly Macdonald as Mrs Walker) are completely believable for the time period, supported by stunning design, and a rousing score. It may show a very middle-class, pre-war view of England (complete with a father stationed in the Far East with the Navy); but maybe it’s an innocent fun which should be celebrated, where children are sent out on adventures without supervision and are expected to look after each other; and where knives are used for whittling. As Mrs Walker explains, as the children first sail off into the sunset: ‘I don’t want them frightened of the world.’ It may be a very different world now, but that is surely something to wish for.