Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle

Last updated December 31, 2021

Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle is a television drama, written by Rhidian Brook and directed by Susanna White, which originally aired on 26 March 2005 on BBC.^[1]

Plot

Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle tells the story of a school outing, with a bunch of uncontrollable fifth-formers and three teachers from a London comprehensive school, to Salisbury Cathedral. The children show no interest in the purpose of the trip, and are even indifferent towards a view of Stonehenge which they pass on the way: "a boring pile of stones... perhaps we could sell it". The pupils even get more excited by all the things on offer at a motorway service station they stop at on the way.

The teacher behind the trip, a plump, middle-aged and reticent Mr. Harvey (Timothy Spall), prepares fact sheets about the cathedral for the pupils, but even the other two teachers (Miss Davies, played by Celia Imrie, and Mr. Cole, played by Ben Miles) see little point in the trip. The bunch of kids is a cross-section of multi-cultural London. Two particular outsiders are a Muslim boy (Mo, played by Joshua Malin) and a pretty-yet-vain girl (Helen, played by Natalie Press), who turns out to have little self-esteem, letting boys have sex with her and self-injuring by cutting.

It transpires that Mr. Harvey organised the trip to coincide with the 21st anniversary of his last trip to the cathedral, the day when he proposed to the woman who became his wife. He carries in his wallet a fading photo of the very moment when they got engaged. One of the boys steals his wallet. Helen takes the photo from the wallet, defaces the photo and passes it around the coach for the other pupils to see, to their amusement. Mr. Harvey suspects that one of the pupils had stolen his wallet, but doesn't know who, and confronts Helen, grabbing her and revealing her cut wrists.

When the group finally arrives at Salisbury Cathedral, and the pupils have got out the coach, Mr. Harvey finds the photo – now defaced. He is beside himself with grief and rage. But once inside the cathedral, instead of the expected tour of the building, Mr. Harvey tells the pupils about how his wife had killed herself a year after they had got married.

The pupils are silenced by his story: he has come to terms with his past during the trip, as well as opening up to his colleagues and pupils about the events which had had a profound effect on his life.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Salisbury Cathedral Church in Wiltshire, England

Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.

<i>To Sir, with Love</i> 1967 British drama film

To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and singer Lulu making her film debut. James Clavell directed from his own screenplay, which was based on E. R. Braithwaite's 1959 autobiographical novel of the same name.

Five Corners is a 1988 American independent crime drama film, directed by Tony Bill, written by John Patrick Shanley, and stars Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, John Turturro, and Rodney Harvey. The film depicts 48 hours in the lives of a group of four young New Yorkers in the 1960s.

Bishop Wordsworth's School is a Church of England boys' grammar school in Salisbury, Wiltshire for boys aged 11 to 18. The school is regularly amongst the top-performing schools in England, and in 2010 was the school with the best results in the English Baccalaureate. It was granted academy status in March 2011 and is an Additional Member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. It is within the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral, adjacent to the Cathedral School.

Jody Lee Latham is an English actor, best known for his roles as Lip Gallagher in the British Channel 4 comedy drama series Shameless, Calum McKenzie in the ITV series The Fixer and Rob Grayson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He has also had notable short-term guest roles in the school-based drama series Waterloo Road and the medical drama Holby City.

David John Bradley is an English actor. He is known for playing Argus Filch in the Harry Potter film series, Walder Frey in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, Abraham Setrakian in the FX horror series The Strain, and for voicing Merlin in Guillermo del Toro’s animated Netflix series Tales of Arcadia. He is also an established stage actor, with a career that includes a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in a production of King Lear.

Founded by King Henry VIII, The King's School is a state-funded Church of England school located in Peterborough, England.

Randall Disher is a fictional character portrayed by Jason Gray-Stanford on the television series Monk.

Opie Taylor is a fictional character played by Ron Howard in the American television program The Andy Griffith Show, which was televised on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968. Opie Taylor appeared in 209 of the 249 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, and appeared in 2 spin-off shows and a TV Movie.

Our Day Out is a television play about poor children from Liverpool, England. It was written by Willy Russell and first aired on 28 December 1977, at 9:00 p.m. on BBC2. It was later converted into a full length stage musical.

South Wilts Grammar School, formerly South Wilts Grammar School for Girls, is a grammar school in Salisbury, south Wiltshire, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. Established in 1927, the school converted to an academy in 2011. In 2020, the name was changed to South Wilts Grammar School to reflect the fact that male students would be accepted into sixth form as of September that year.

Benjamin Charles Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, from 2002 to 2003, as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2017) and George in episode 8 "The One That Holds Everything" in the TV drama The Romanoffs (2018).

Clifton School (Durban) is an independent day school for boys in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The Harvey Grammar School is located in Folkestone, Kent, England. It is a grammar school with academy status founded by William Harvey in 1674.

Roundhay School is a mixed all-through school and sixth form located in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. At its last Ofsted inspection in 2013, it was judged 'outstanding', one of only three secondary schools in Leeds to hold this rating which was obtained under its last headteacher.

Kipps is a 1941 British comedy-drama film adaptation of H. G. Wells's 1905 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Carol Reed and stars Michael Redgrave as a draper's assistant who inherits a large fortune. The film's costumes were designed by Cecil Beaton.

The Boy In The Dress is a children's book written by David Walliams and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is the first book by Walliams, a television comedian best known for the cult BBC show Little Britain. It tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy called John and a twelve-year-old boy called Dennis who enjoys cross-dressing, and the reactions of his family and friends. It is aimed at readers aged eight to twelve, and is intended to teach children that cross-dressing is a healthy and acceptable hobby and not something to be ashamed of. It has been adapted into a television film and a musical.

Ek Tha Chandar Ek Thi Sudha is an Indian television series, which premiered on 21 September 2015 and is broadcast on Life OK. The series is produced by Ashwni Dhir's Garima Productions and aired every Monday to Friday night. The series is a tragic love story and is a 20-episode series based on Dharamvir Bharati’s iconic 1949 novel, Gunahon Ka Devta. Rahil Azam and Umang Jain appeared in lead roles.

References

↑ Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle. BBC. Retrieved 28 May 2007.
↑ Where Children Snicker and Faith Still Flickers – New York Times

This article related to a BBC television programme is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle. BBC. Retrieved 28 May 2007.

[2] Where Children Snicker and Faith Still Flickers – New York Times

[1]

[2]