CINEMA: St Trinian's

Way back in 1954, when Ronald Searle’s classic cartoons of the wayward pupils of St Trinian’s, their cash-strapped headmistress and her money-making plans, and a spiv going by the fabulous name of Flash Harry first hit the big screen you can imagine that such anarchy, energy and jolly good old hockey-sticks fun was a breath of fresh air to a Britain emerging from the austere post-war years. So the remake and its stars have a lot to live up to, not least Rupert Everett in the dual, cross-dressing part of headmistress Camilla Fritton and her dodgy art dealer brother Carnaby.

Things start off promisingly enough as Carnaby drops his unsuspecting daughter Annabelle (Talulah Riley) off at the run-down St Trinian’s fresh from a stint at exclusive boarding academy, Cheltenham Ladies College. However, Annabelle soon gets a taste of the mayhem that is St T’s as she’s introduced to Head Girl Kelly (Gemma Arterton), the motley crew that is the rest of the student body and the eccentrics and maniacs that comprise the teaching staff. Once again, the school is in a precarious financial state and it is up to Camilla, Flash Harry (an extremely spivved up Russell Brand) and the beloved girls to save the day, although their plans are constantly under threat from the hardline Minister of Education, Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth).

The plot involves a trip to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and participation in a TV quiz show School Challenge, but this shift of emphasis in location away from the school and its grounds into pastures new actually lessens the claustrophobic quality of the comedy of the original. Also watered down is the internecine warfare between the pig-tailed Juniors and the all-smoking, stocking-wearing Seniors of the 1954 film. Instead, in a nod to the cultural diversity of the noughties, the girls now fall into strictly separated gangs such as the Trustafarians, Goths (AKA Emos), Geeks and Posh Totty. Another new innovation is the amount of technological gizmos on show with webcams, computer hacking, mobile phones, bugging devices and lasers all liberally used to push the plot along – a far cry from the buckets of paint, cricket bats, smoke bombs and a couple of sticks of dynamite available to the girls in the original.

This may be progress as we know it in the 21^st Century, but it waters down the organic sense of total chaos and sheer schoolgirl hysteria (and also a great deal of the anarchic fun) that used to be St Trinian’s and its girls – now they’re far too sophisticated for their own good. That said, tweenies will enjoy the fact that the students definitely get one over on the grown ups (and then some).

The performances are adequate but Rupert Everett isn’t a patch on the divine Alistair Sim (and his false teeth as Camilla make it difficult to understand what he’s saying). Mind you, his Camilla in pink velour tracksuit (or should that be leisure suit?) and headscarf is a sight never to be forgotten (no matter how hard you may wish to).     Dee Pilgrim