Carrie's War

This captivating Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of a popular British novel by Nina Bawden has been called “an adult fairytale” with good reason: it's an engrossing yarn that draws on the harsh realities of World War II as a backdrop for the fanciful adventures of two children, which begin when 14-year-old Carrie Willow (Keeley Fawcett) and her younger brother Nick (Jack Stanley) are separated from their mother in London and shipped off to Wales for temporary boarding with a starchy, widowed shopkeeper named Evans and his spinster sister. The drabness of their new life is forgotten once the Willow children visit Druid's Bottom, a magical manor inhabited by a self-proclaimed witch and the delightfully dotty Mrs. Gotobed (Geraldine McEwan, the current Miss Marple). Modestly mounted but shot with considerable flair, Carrie's War boasts a smart screenplay and colorful performances from both the moon-faced Fawcett, who makes an adorable ingénue, and Stanley as her appropriately obtrusive younger sibling. Director Coky Giedroyc handles the tale's more fanciful aspects with obvious enthusiasm, while maintaining the largeness of heart at its core. Recommended. (E. Hulse)