Reviews

This TV movie provided a fine performance by Billy Connolly as "Jo Jo" , no doubt he relished the Glasgow setting and the fact that the main character was a self made man , like himself , although from the criminal fraternity .

Though this is a thriller/crime genre piece there are plenty of comedy moments , the brilliant brass band romp in the bank vault is truly comic genius .

The denouement is completely unexpected also as the police begin to suspect Jo Jo and he finds the forthcoming marriage of his daughter to the police chief's son may offer an opportunity .

Critically this is a fine bit of work and parts of it will have you chewing your nails in suspense and laughing out loud .

As a fan of the Dick Van Dyke vehicle "Diagnosis Murder" this feature length addition caught my eye . Many of the original characters from the series axed in 2000 return here . Essentially Dr Mark Sloan ( Van Dyke ) is expecting his black sheep daughter to return home with her new husband . On the journey their car breaks down and they stop off in a Smallville-esquire town "Los Rios" . It is here that an incident occurs and Sloan and the usual suspects fear something more sinister is afoot . It would seem that the Van Dyke's ( for many of the family are here ) can't do pathos - a family member disappears and they show all the urgency of a sloth , and the emotion of Charles Bronson . The general story involving blackmail , racism , small town mentality and locals with a lot to lose has been done before and considerably better . Would have liked the jokey air of the original series to continue but this really was an episode too far .

I managed to catch this TV Movie a couple of days ago . In essence it relates to true incident involving the kidnapping of a bus load of children and their driver in the small town of Chowchilla , California in 1976 and the failed bid for a ransom . Karl Malden plays the kind hearted driver of the school bus who eventually becomes the children's saviour : Malden is excellent in this part and portrays it with conviction in what is a pretty lame tele-reproduction of the incident . Little is offered in the way of painting a picture of the background to the kidnappers and their motives . This aside , Malden does a fair job and the general horror of the parents waiting for news of their children's' fate is shown well . There's some fine interaction between Ed Ray (Malden) and his charges ,sadly few of these child actors seem to have featured in much else . This movie is always worth a look , especially when you consider that years on many of the real children involved continue to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder .