Guest Author - Peggy Maddox
Based on a first novel by Michelle Magorian, Goodnight Mr. Tom first appeared as a Masterpiece Theatre prouction in May 1999. It came to my attention only recently when I noticed it on Netflix.
Because I enjoyed watching John Thaw as Inspector Morse in the Mystery! series, I decided to see what he was like in another part.
Director: Jack Gold
Writers: novel by Michelle Magorian; screen adaptation by Brian Finch
John Thaw - Tom Oakley
Nick Robinson - William Beech
Thomas Orange - Zacharias Wrench
Mrs. Beech - Annabelle Apsion
Tom Oakley, like Morse, is a curmudgeonly man with depths of love and compassion. He lives in a pleasant cottage in the fictitious English village of Weirwold.
In 1940 several children evacuated from London because of the air raids arrive in the village. One of the children, William Beech, is billeted with Oakley because the mother has asked specifically that the child be placed with someone "religious," or who at least "lives near a church." Tom's cottage is right next to the village church and graveyard.
Oakley is the village grouch. He keeps aloof from the other villagers, all them kindly and neighborly. His surliness stems from grief. While he was away with the navy in WWI, his wife and young son died of scarlet fever. The arrival of William forces him to live in the present. For one thing, the timid little boy wets his bed and the sheets must be changed every day.
Although the boy arrives with only one set of threadbare clothing, William's mother has sent along a large, wide belt for purposes of correction. Oakley obtains a warm wardrobe for the boy and, when the child changes clothes in front of him, Oakley sees that the child's back is scarred from many beatings.
With unremitting patience, Oakley cares for the child without a trace of criticism. Although shocked by the evidence of neglect the child has suffered, Oakley never shows it and William begins to blossom. The bedwetting stops. He learns to read and write. He demonstrates a gift for drawing. He makes friends with the other children. His best friend is Zach, another London evacuee whose father is a doctor in the East End, the most heavily bombed part of the city.
The full horror of William's upbringing is revealed when his mother sends for him and he returns to London and her squalid home. The horrors she inflicts on the child are more dreadful than those of any fairy tale step-mother.
As a children's book, Goodnight Mr. Tom has won the following awards:
International Reading Association Children's Book Award
1982
Notable Children's Books of 1982 (ALA)
1982
Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1982
Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
1983
Young Adult Editors' Choices (BL)
1982
Teachers' Choices (NCTE)1982
Notable Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)
1988
Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children)
1988
Children's Books of 1982 (Library of Congress)
The movie is rated for family viewing, Nevertheless, I wouldn't want a very young child to see how Mrs. Beech treats her children.
When William does not write to him as promised, Oakley travels to London and brings the newly traumatized boy back home with him.
I haven't read the novel yet, but I certainly plan to. This story is a keeper.
