For our first Christmas Day blog, I thought that you might enjoy a remembrance of all those primary school nativities that are always such a part of the modern celebration of Christmas. The Flint Street Nativity from 1999 (a kinder gentler time!) directed by Marcus Mortimer, written by Tim Firth, and showcasing a host of well known celebrities. It was broadcast by ITV on 22 December 1999.
The film is set in the fictitious inner city Flint Street Primary School, on the Welsh-Cheshire borders. It focuses on the seven- and eight-year-old pupils in that evening’s sole performance of the school nativity play, from the pre-performance classroom preparations to the final stage performance, which culminates in calamity. There are inevitable mishaps, misunderstandings, young egos, fears of failure and fallings out. The children’s characters eventually evolve into mirror images of their parents when the actors all appear as their parents (the play’s audience) at the post-show gathering.
The story is based on real events, collected over ten years from members of Tim Firth’s family and friends who were teachers. Flint Street Primary School is modelled on Stockton Heath Primary School, where Firth attended and his mother taught. The film was shot in Lansdowne Primary School in Canton, Cardiff. An oversize set was used to make the actors’ characters more believable. The actresses wore swimsuits three sizes too small to flatten their adult body parts.
Alfred Hickling of The Guardian thought the film “exposes what an ungodly snake pit of paediatric power-politics the staging of your average Nativity play can be… There are moments when you may wet yourself laughing.”
