The legendary girls from St Trinians had their premiere last night in Leicester Square. St Trinian's is the 2007 film of the 1950s film series is getting certain bits of the press excited, with a cast that features Rupert Everett in drag, Russell Brand twatting about with no noticeable change of costume or persona, Colin Firth striding about being humourless and lots of attractive women playing schoolgirls. Celia Imrie and Anna Chancellor both have roles but these seem to be eclipsed by the appearance of Girls Aloud in pleated skirts and knee socks.
From what we've seen and what we've heard about the film, it's possibly a movie-length trip to School Disco with grown women leaping about in too tight, too short school uniforms, sucking lollipops and "being naughty". There's also a bizarre, much talked of irony in the girls taking part in sex, drugs and vandalism in this updated cinema outing - but cannot be shown smoking. How much of antidote to Harry Potter can St Trinians be, as the directors have been often been quoted as saying? It sounds frankly of the same mould: make-believe and fantasy, with a fair amount of lecherous schoolgirl porn-lite for extra.
Can't we have some school films showing kids getting on with their homework and doing really well in their exams, being nice to their kind, understanding teachers and doing a Saturday job in the local shop instead? Does the genre have to be Harry Potter and the St Trinians Hellcats in short skirts or inner-city gun crime made good by the magic of Michelle Pfeiffer? How about St Trinians: doing some bloody work for GCSEs so keep the noise down and go to bed early next? Please?
St Trinian's opens to the general public in cinemas from 21 December.
