Daily Telegraph's 'DVD of the Week'

Marc Lee's review yesterday:



NANNY MCPHEE AND THE BIG BANG (UCert)



When she first appears, Nanny McPhee is fierce, formidable and has a phizog resembling an old boot. Hardly Mary Poppins. But, as the brats in her care learn to behave, she is gradually and magically transformed into a creature as lovely as Emma Thompson, here reprising the role she first played on the big screen five years ago.



The setting this time is the dilapidated mudbath of a farm where the three Green children and their harassed mother are struggling while Dad is away fighting in the Second World War.



To add to the chaos and confusion, two prissy, spoilt-brat cousins arrive as evacuees from London. Even Nanny's considerable powers are severely tested.



Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay, is terrific in the title role; and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Mum tramps gamely through the bucolic pandemonium.



The children, especially the two children from "the land of soap and inside toilets", are perfectly cast, and there's great support from Rhys Ifans, Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes and comedian Bill Bailey.