Joss Auckland plays Alan Holly, a retired man who has just been informed that he is showing the first signs of dementia. So Alan suddenly walks away from his home and his family to fulfil his lifetime ambition of walking from Lands End to John O Groats whilst he is still able to do so.
Alan's first attempt soon ends in failure, and he returns home. But then, to his family's consternation, he leaves home and tries again, this time he succeeds, and meets a succession of strange characters along the way.
Alan is not an immediately sympathetic character, he is quite likeable in a bumbling, innocent abroad kind of way, but the viewer can understand why his family find him somewhat tiresome. Alan's family see him as a kind of King Lear character who has abdicated his responsibilities and become a nuisance. And this is no picture postcard version of travelling through England, the terseness and sometimes open hostility by provincial types to townies who visit their places out of season is faithfully depicted. The only yokel who seems a nice person is a farmers wife, who gives Alan a bed for the night rather than leave him exhausted in freezing rain in the middle of nowhere, her gruff husband would quite happily have left him outside.
The ending is bitter sweet, Alan's smile of pleasure at finally teaching his destination slowly fades, presumably because he has realised his lifetime ambition, and now he has nothing left to live for.
Thought provoking, at times amusing, at times sad, this is a fine comedy drama, but be warned, not everybody will enjoy it.
Alan's first attempt soon ends in failure, and he returns home. But then, to his family's consternation, he leaves home and tries again, this time he succeeds, and meets a succession of strange characters along the way.
Alan is not an immediately sympathetic character, he is quite likeable in a bumbling, innocent abroad kind of way, but the viewer can understand why his family find him somewhat tiresome. Alan's family see him as a kind of King Lear character who has abdicated his responsibilities and become a nuisance. And this is no picture postcard version of travelling through England, the terseness and sometimes open hostility by provincial types to townies who visit their places out of season is faithfully depicted. The only yokel who seems a nice person is a farmers wife, who gives Alan a bed for the night rather than leave him exhausted in freezing rain in the middle of nowhere, her gruff husband would quite happily have left him outside.
The ending is bitter sweet, Alan's smile of pleasure at finally teaching his destination slowly fades, presumably because he has realised his lifetime ambition, and now he has nothing left to live for.
Thought provoking, at times amusing, at times sad, this is a fine comedy drama, but be warned, not everybody will enjoy it.