STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
Alan Harris (Martin Kemp) is a painter and decorator who lives with his wife Donna (Michelle Collins) and their young daughter.However,he's riddled with money problems and his marriage is starting to bear the strain of it.In desperation,he tells Donna a massive lie-that he's won the jackpot on the National Lottery!For a while,through pulling various scams and the other,he is able to live the high life and splash out waddles of cash he doesn't have,but eventually,inevitably,the truth catches up with him...
It's funny,because I recorded this the night it was on and didn't watch it till the Friday later-during which time I watched a programme on the same channel,ITV1,which featured the story this TV movie is based on and didn't realize until then that it was actually a true story.It's certainly the most implausible true story I've ever come across.And it was another true story that Martin Kemp head-billed,following on from his turn as the murderous George Smith in The Brides in the Bath.It seems,in his post East Enders career,if he's not helping DFS or Abbey National flog merchandise and offers,he's taking the lead in true story dramas from ITV!He's better than I thought he'd be and certainly not as wooden as the trailer would have suggested.In the supporting role,Collins has a well-written part but she,like everything else on display,just fails to add much interest to the proceedings.Everything about it just feels so stilted and lifeless that it just fails to engage the attention much at all.It's certainly an interesting story to make a TV movie out of,and had it been a bit more daring and had more of an edge to it,it could have been really great.As it is,it passes as nothing more than a mildly diverting piece of fluff.**
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