Mark Lester and Jack Wilde reunite for this rather engaging, and quite telling, coming of age story. The former is in love with "Melody" (Tracy Hyde) and declaring their intention to be together forever, their fellow school pupils and their teachers must try to manage these determined youngsters. The film starts off with Lester setting fire to his dad's morning newspaper, and that gives us indication that what will follow is not one of these procedural love stories - and it isn't. Helped along by some dialogue from Alan Parker that very much presents the child's perspective (and frequently ridicules the adult rebuttals) and helped along by a grand soundtrack of songs from the Bee Gees it's a solidly entertaining drama that questions so many accepted norms about age and what constitutes "maturity". Amongst the adults, James Cossins is good as their increasingly out-of-his-depth headmaster as are Shiela Staefel and Roy Kinnear, but it's essentially a story of young love that the adults learn to treat with disdain at their peril... I didn't love the ending, it was a bit too ridiculous, but told from a child's eyes it's really quite an eye opener!
