Wondrous Oblivion

Eleven-year-old David Wiseman (Smith) is daft about cricket, but not terribly good at it. At school, he's plonked out in the field where he can do little damage, but his fortunes may change when he starts honing his skills under the tutelage of his new Jamaican neighbour (Lindo). This being white middle-class London suburbia circa 1960, bonding across the back fence isn't universally accepted, with David's hard-working tailor father aware it might make this Jewish family vulnerable to the shifting sands of local opinion. Having tackled anti-semitism in the Welsh valleys of 1911 in Solomon and Gaenor, Morrison moves on to another set of prejudices in this well-meaning but ungainly attempt at fusing social consciousness and feelgood family fare. Certainly, it's smart to leap on cricket as a fault-line between the Caribbean new arrivals and the English, and there's a certain sensitivity - fine performances, too - in the subtle handling of the sexual tension between Woof's repressed Jewish spouse and Lindo's handsome stranger. Overall, a safe single when it might have played for the boundary.