TV series to big screen adaptations are tricky beasts to pull off - for every Alan Partridge Alpha Papa and The Inbetweeners Movie there is The Harry Hill Movie and - oh, the horror - Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie. It was a surprise to see this spin-off from The Catherine Tate Show; given the success of the revival Nan TV specials it looked a viable proposition, but whilst the limited scope of the Nan character works very well in short-form TV-sketch format, it does not carry particularly effectively across a full-length feature film. The expansion mechanism here is sending Nan and hapless grandson Jamie off on a road trip to visit her long-estranged sister, but the film is saddled with a thin script that offers little real comedy. Thankfully, the film does stay true to the character, and the World War II flashbacks flesh out the backstory with some nice character moments. Both Catherine Tate and Katherine Parkinson are strong dramatic and comedic actors and they try their best, but reports of reshoots to boost the number of modern day scenes and the insertion of unnecessary additional animated sequences with the original director credit removed, make the movie seem inconsistent and lacking the sharp humour that the sketch format delivered.
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