NANNY MCPHEE & THE BIG BANG

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NANNY McPHEE & THE BIG BANG is a sequel to the popular children's film from 2005. This time the action occurs during the Second World War when the magical nanny comes to the aid of a mother whose husband is away at the Front. The mother is struggling to maintain order amongst her unruly children and their cousins who have been evacuated from London. The film was passed 'U' and contains one use of very mild language.

The very mild language occurs when one of the children uses the phrase "There’s bugger all to eat in here" as he inspects his sparse new surroundings. The same character also uses the word 'poo' repeatedly but this is in relation to the messy farm surroundings in which he finds himself. Furthermore, his attitude undergoes a clear change through his experiences on the farm. The film also contains some examples of mild bad manners such as a 'burping' blackbird' and mild bad behaviour as the children fight with one another. However, the children are reprimanded for their fighting and the bad manners and bad behaviour all occur within a good-natured comic context, with the film as a whole promoting positive messages about understanding, resourcefulness and courage.

There are also some mildly scary moments, such as the furniture in a shop seeming to come to life and talk to an adult character, but these moments are brief and are accompanied by both reassurance and comic respite. A scene in which the family are led to believe that their father has been killed in the war is handled with sensitivity, the sadness being immediately balanced by the response of one of the children who declares with utter certainty that he knows his father is still alive. He then uses his resourcefulness - helped by Nanny McPhee's magic - to prove it.

Scenes featuring a comically 'bad' character who is determined to sell the family farm so that he can pay his gambling debts see him being threatened by two equally comic women 'enforcers' who say that unless he settles his debts they will remove his kidneys. The women are presented like pantomime 'evil sisters' and their threats are played for laughs without any real sense that their 'victim' will actually come to a grisly end.