RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Pete Huntley I adore Professor Branestawm. One of my favourite books as a kid.So when I heard Harry Hill was to play the professor I had huge doubts. I've never found Hill funny, even though I appreciate his talents. He's just not my style of humorist. I thought he'd be too broad and overplay the character, like his comic persona.I couldn't have been more wrong. Hill is excellent. He's not necessarily playing the character in the books, but brings his own slant which is rounded, believable, funny and entertaining.Just a damn shame about everyone else involved in the production.With the exception of Ben Miller and the young girl, everyone else is overacting. Even David Mitchell, who should know better. Adrian Scarborough pulling silly faces as the vicar when the role was screaming for Mark Williams to offer some nuanced comedy.Ben Miller does of course require special praise. The man is not only one of the funniest actors in Britain, he's one of the finest full stop and if he moved into drama, he could play any role with distinction. Worth the entrance fee alone. Just watch the town hall scene. He's the only one to get any traction out of the munitions factory joke and does so without even trying.So unfortunately, much of this is sub panto mugging to a rather smug script (The Tardis? Really?), the kind that the BBC does insufferably well nowadays. There are gems and laughs to be had from some of the performers but really it's only half way to the Professor Branestawm I hoped for and wanted.

Westmoney Not a laugh. Not a titter. BBC on low quality, high political correctness. Pity because the actors are good and Harry Hill really looks the part.Things that irked:1) The major feminist theme about allowing girls to be taught science. Yawn. 2) The racially 'balanced' cast in a period piece. Yawn. 3) The acceptability of a wife punching and knocking out her husband. What!? Try reversing the roles and getting away with it. 4) The rubbish inventions. A man with a pillow over his head pretending to be a robot?Watched it with my 3 kids. High expectations. Not one laugh. In fact the programme almost emptied our living room. BBC is so busy being PC it has lost all sense of creativity.

Prismark10 Professor Branestawm is based on a character created by author Norman Hunter in the 1930s who wrote a series of books featuring him over the years. As I knew little of Professor Branestawm I thought the infamous Leeds footballer of the 1970s, Norman 'bites yer legs' Hunter had carved another career post-retirement!Branestawm is what might be termed the original absent minded professor, whose strange inventions tend to go disastrously wrong. His housekeeper Mrs Flittersnoop and his dim but loyal comrade Colonel Dedshott are usually on hand to come to his rescue.Some of the local dignitaries have had enough of the zany Professor and one of the rogue Councillor's is in cahoots with a bullyboy corporate mogul who wants to build a munitions factory in the village and destroy its way of life and get shot of the professor at the same time.Its up to a school girl Connie already fed up with her teacher at school who is hell bent on holding girls back from learning science to stop the bully boys from pulling the plug on the Professor and his contraptions.Harry Hill takes the starring role as the very bespectacled Professor Branestawm who fits well with the zaniness as well as being the social outsider, finding hard to communicate with people but for his few friends.The film is certainly charming, its adapted by comedy actor and noted author Charlie Higson who also appears in the film. However it felt a little too aimed at the kids rather than a family audience and it also felt rather cumbersome with its humour. Still I would like to see more of the televised adventures featuring the Professor.

Neil Welch Brilliant but scatterbrained, Professor Branestawm (whose inventions tend to work in ways completely unforeseen by the inventor) finds himself in conflict with property developers.I have an abiding memory of sitting in Mr Weston's class at the age of 9 or so, around 1960, and being mesmerised at the notion of half a policeman saying "Pass along, p-". Tonight that image, reproduced faithfully on my TV, transported me straight back to my childhood.Charlie Higson's adaptation of the classic children's character (played beautifully by Harry Hill) is pitch perfect. It summons up a period England of the imagination, peopled with wonderfully improbable (and funny) characters and events. Bright, colourful and cheerful, it is an unqualified success. I hope we will see more.