The Flint Street Nativity

Plot

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.

Cast

Production and release

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.

The film was broadcast by ITV on 22 December 1999. It was originally released on DVD on 31 October 2005 and re-released on 3 November 2008.

Reception

In 2002, the film was voted in the top 15 Christmas TV moments on Channel 4.

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."

Theatre adaptation

Firth rewrote the play and added music for the stage production at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2006. It was repeated again in 2007.