‘NATIVITY 2: DANGER N THE MANGER!’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Donald Peterson’s ‘Song for Christmas’
I think you should only buy ‘Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger’ out of the ‘Nativity’ film series! 🙂
This ‘Nativity’ film has to be my favourite out of the four ‘Nativity’ films so far. It’s no surprise as David Tennant stars in it. The film was released in November 2012 and it has lots of festive fun. It also has Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins, Joanna Page, Ian McNeice, Jessica Hynes and Pam Ferris in it.
For me, David Tennant is well known for playing the Tenth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. David Tennant has that magic about him to make any film or TV production he’s in entertaining. And he gets to play two characters in the film. This was a delight for me when I saw the film, but we’ll get to that later. 🙂
As I said in my previous review for ‘Nativity!’, my best mate from school Stephen knew of my love for ‘Doctor Who’ and knew that David Tennant was one of my favourite Doctors. So he knew that I would enjoy this film when he purchased it for me for Christmas 2017. I absolutely enjoyed the film!
It was a thrill of a ride when I first saw ‘Nativity 2’. I admit some of it is pretty outrageous and a bit rude for my tastes, but somehow I couldn’t help enjoy the film. I saw ‘Nativity 2’ before I saw the first film. I don’t think you need to watch the first film first as ‘Nativity 2’ does stand well on its own!
This film sees David Tennant as the new supply teacher Donald Peterson, taking over the class formerly taught by Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman’s character in the first ‘Nativity’ film) at St. Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School. But Mr. Peterson gets abducted by Mr. Poppy and the kids. 😮
Donald Peterson is forced to help Mr. Poppy and St. Bernadette’s kids to enter into the ‘A Song for Christmas’ competition in Wales. They have obstacles to overcome in their road trip to get to the competition in time, but they also have to thwart the efforts of Donald’s evil twin brother, Roderick.
David Tennant is wonderful in this. Donald Peterson is a young school teacher who just moved into a new house with his wife Joanna Page as Sarah. It was interesting how he became the new supply teacher at St. Bernadette’s for the class formerly run by Mr. Maddens. He gets a very bad reception.
The class is already under the influence of Marc Wootton as immature classroom assistant Desmond Poppy. Donald becomes anxious when it’s his first day at school and he’s rather taken back by the child-like attitude of Mr. Poppy who makes life worse for him when he’s taking charge of the kids. 😐
It gets even worse when Mr. Poppy tries to persuade Donald Peterson to allow him and the kids to go on their trip to Wales for the national song competition ‘A Song for Christmas’. Mr Poppy and the children want to be a part of it, but Donald is abiding by the rules of Mrs. Bevan as she’s forbidden it.
I found it extremely funny when David Tennant’s character Donald Peterson gets annoyed with Mr. Poppy, especially during the auditions for babies playing the baby Jesus in the song competition and him banging his head on the table. He has a rant about it when he returns home to his wife at night.
This is before Donald’s father (played by Ian McNeice as Mr. Peterson Senior) shows up to stay over for Christmas with him and his wife. I also enjoyed it when Donald got hauled onto the ‘boat-bus’ by Mr. Poppy and the children, becoming their prisoner. It does go out of control for Donald in the film.
One of my favourite pieces of dialogue in the film is when Donald goes “Oh, this is the best Christmas ever!” Poppy responds “You’re right, Mr. Peterson! It is the best Christmas ever!” I laughed when Donald, through gritted teeth, said “I was being sarcastic!” I like that kind of comedic dialogue!
I found it funny when Donald, Poppy and the kids were in boats journeying through rapids. David’s character fell out of the boat at one point and he got annoyed with Mr Poppy when he thought he was going to drown as he desperately got back on firm ground. I don’t blame him getting annoyed. 🙂
As I understand it, that moment where David fell out of the boat during the rapids scene was by accident and they put it in to add to the film’s effect. It works well and arguably ‘Nativity 2’ is a film that truly plays to David’s comedy and drama talents very well as an actor which I truly enjoyed here.
Of course, David Tennant doesn’t just play Donald Peterson here. As mentioned, this film is extra-special as David plays two parts in it. He also plays his twin brother Roderick Peterson. Roderick has also entered the ‘A Song for Christmas’ competition and he happens to be a church choir conductor.
Roderick’s character is the opposite of Donald’s character. The twin brother is pretty serious and lacks humour. Yet it’s so funny to watch David play him, wearing dark clothes and have gothic music in the background. I am impressed with David’s ability to play two characters so distinctly in the film.
This is especially when the two brothers are in the same scenes together. Behind-the-scenes, when David’s playing the times at the same time, he often talks to himself, saying the other brother’s dialogue like a ventriloquist would with a puppet. It’s very impressive how David’s able to do that. 😀
I also like how behind-the-scenes, David has the ability to improvise his lines. This is especially when they had to record scenes with a donkey and the donkey ‘wouldn’t move’. This is difficult when David’s character has to put his pregnant wife on the donkey before she’s about to have birth in this.
I loved it when Donald Peterson told his brother Roderick and his father Mr. Peterson Snr. to “Shut up!” a lot. He says “Shut up!” so well in that pretty rounded Scottish accent of his. 😀 Even though he was anxious about things at the beginning, he seems to feel good about himself which is very funny.
The rest of the cast are brilliant in this film too. I did enjoy Marc Wootton doing his child-like performance of Mr. Poppy when I first saw the film. His scenes with David Tennant are truly sensational. Also his relationship with the kids is kind of a wonder when they’re interacting with him.
I must admit though, in terms of the whole ‘Nativity’ film series, Mr. Poppy’s character doesn’t really change. He more or less stays the same. I would’ve thought he would’ve grown out of his immaturity and had learnt things in becoming a responsible adult instead of being pretty childish all the time. 😐
Joanna Page as Sarah Peterson, Donald’s wife, is lovely to watch in the film. She comes across as so sweet and she clearly has a great chemistry with David as her on-screen husband. It’s clear that the two love each other as Sarah is very concerned about her husband when he goes missing in the film.
Fun fact: David Tennant and Joanna Page would later work together again in ‘Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special ‘The Day of the Doctor’ where he played the Tenth Doctor and she played Queen Elizabeth I. I have also seen Joanna Page in 1999’s ‘David Copperfield’ and she did ‘Gavin & Stacey’. 🙂
I mentioned about Ian McNeice playing Mr. Peterson Snr., Donald and Roderick’s dad. Ian is well-known to ‘Doctor Who’ fans for playing Winston Churchill on TV and in the Big Finish audios. I’ve also seen him in 1999’s ‘David Copperfield’ as well as 1999’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ with Patrick Stewart.
I enjoyed Ian’s performance as the Petersons’ father. He belittles Donald greatly, disapproving him of becoming teacher, whilst praising the efforts of his other son Roderick who’s become a successful church choir conductor with an OBE. I believe Peterson Snr. was pretty mean-spirited before Donald.
Pam Ferris returns to play Mrs. Bevan, the school headmistress of St. Bernadette’s and Mr. Poppy’s aunt. As with the first film, I found Pam Ferris lovely and sweet. She’s far from her formidable performance as Miss Trunchbull in ‘Matilda’, though she has a hard time keeping the school in order.
This is especially when Mr. Poppy, Donald Peterson and the kids have gone to appear in the ‘A Song for Christmas’ competition in Wales. I wonder though why she didn’t help out delivering Sarah Peterson’s babies in the film like she did in ‘Call the Midwife’. She arrived after the babies arrived. 😀
Jessica Hynes plays Angel Matthews, the host for the ‘A Song for Christmas’ competition at the castle venue in Wales. Jessica Hynes has worked with David Tennant before in ‘Doctor Who’. She was Joan Redfern in ‘Human Nature’/’The Family of Blood’ and she was Verity Newman in ‘The End of Time’. 🙂
She also did ‘Spaced’ with Simon Pegg, although she was Jessica Stevenson at the time. I enjoyed her playing Angel Matthews in ‘Nativity 2’ and it was interesting to hear her with a Welsh accent. 😀 I think she had a favouritism problem with supporting Roderick Peterson to win instead of any others.
Jason Watkins also returns to play Mr. Shakespeare, the head of the rival school Oakmoor against St. Bernadette’s in the ‘A Song for Christmas’ competition. It was fun to see Jason Watkins back and he does deliver the comedy and drama well, although his character could often get a bit pantomime. 😐
I say that when he’s competing against St. Bernadette’s, sending them off the wrong way to head for the castle venue in Wales. He also competes with Roderick Peterson, despite trying to be nice to him at the beginning. Shakespeare helps St. Bernadette’s to ‘win’ when Roderick steals his school’s song.
Rosie Cavaliero returns as Miss Rye in the film. Rosie has done some Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ before including ‘Project: Twilight’ and ‘Project: Lazarus’ with Colin Baker and ‘Infamy of the Zaross’ with David Tennant. The kids performing in this are good too, whether it’s singing or dancing.
The DVD special features are as follows. There’s a ‘sing-a-long’ section containing two songs including ‘Yes We Can’ and ‘Born in the Hay’. There’s also a making-of featurette and deleted scenes & bloopers from the movie.
At the time, ‘Nativity 2’ was truly a delight of a Christmas treat when I first saw it on DVD. And I still enjoy it today with David Tennant in it. It has plenty of songs, some feel-good humour and great performances from the actors on all corners. David Tennant’s sensational playing his two characters.
It was great to see him in something different other than ‘Doctor Who’ which I’m used to seeing and hearing him in. If you’re not a fan of the ‘Nativity’ films but a fan of David Tennant, I recommend buying this film as it’s certainly an entertaining romp that you won’t forget in the spirit of Christmas!
‘Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger’ rating – 8/10
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