Coming Down the Mountain - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Coming Down the Mountain is a 2007 British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

television movie which was shown on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

, written by Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon is an English novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.- Life and work :...

(author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book...

) and directed by Julie Anne Robinson

Julie Anne Robinson

Julie Anne Robinson is a British theatre, television, and film director perhaps best known for her work on British television. She earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for directing the first half of the BBC miniseries Blackpool...

. The television movie was based on a radio play also written by Haddon.

Plot

David and Ben Philips are teenage brothers who live in London. Ben has Down's syndrome. David resents the protective attention his parents lavish on his younger brother and how much they rely on him to look after Ben. The family move from London to Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

so that Ben can attend a special school, meaning David has to leave his friends and girlfriend, Gail, behind. Ben makes friends and finds a girl friend. David has difficulty fitting into his new school, suffering at the hands of bullies which leads him to self harm. David decides to kill his brother. He takes Ben hitchhiking without telling his parents, and they camp in Snowdonia

Snowdonia

Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...

. Climbing the mountain, David plans to murder Ben by pushing him off a high ridge. At the top, David changes his mind but following taunting by Ben pushes him in a fit of rage. Ben survives the fall relatively uninjured, but goes to hospital. David kidnaps him afrom hospital, but Ben stands up to him. He becomes the stronger character and after an evening talking round the camp fire David sees the real Ben for the first time and the brothers become reconciled. They both stand up to their parents' excessive molly coddling who for the first time see Ben as a young adult. Ben explains that he has a girlfriend and wants to work on a farm.

Awards

Nominated for a BAFTA 2008
Winner of the RADAR People of the Year Human Rights Media AWARD 2008

Radio

In 2004, Haddon's original radio broadcast won Bronze for The Drama Award in the Sony Radio Academy Awards

Sony Radio Academy Awards

The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...

Television cast

David Philips - Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult is an English actor, best known for playing Marcus Brewer in the 2002 film About a Boy, Tony Stonem in the E4, BAFTA-winning television series Skins, and Beast in the X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class.-Early life:Hoult was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, the third of four...
Ben Philips - Tommy Jessop
Gail - Emer Kenny
Emer Kenny
Emer Gwynne Morganna Kenny is an English actress from Haringey, London, best known for her role in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and its online spin-off EastEnders: E20, as Zsa Zsa Carter.-Career:...
Alice - Katie Griffiths
Katie Griffiths
Katie Griffiths , is a British actress, best known for playing Chlo Grainger/Chlo Charles in the BBC1 drama Waterloo Road.- Personal life :...

External links

BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

Official website and News article
Script extract from radio version
Mark Haddon's blog about it, from his own website
Why Haddon wanted to make the film, from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult is an English actor, best known for playing Marcus Brewer in the 2002 film About a Boy, Tony Stonem in the E4, BAFTA-winning television series Skins, and Beast in the X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class.-Early life:Hoult was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, the third of four...

on his role
Issues raised about Down's Syndrome
Interviews with Tommy Jessop in Times Online and with Mencap

Reviews

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