Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

Emma Thompson is back as writer and star in another lively adventure of the hideously ugly nanny who loses one of her facial disfigurements each time her unruly charges learn the latest of the five lessons she teaches them. The setting has been updated to the Second World War and farmer's wife Maggie Gyllenhaal is simultaneously maintaining an English accent and a farm, which she runs while hubby is away at the war. She's helped by Nanny McPhee, her three kids and eventually two rich cousins. Meanwhile, her brother, an archetypal spiv (Rhys Ifans), tries to steal the farm. Children will love it, adults will find it tolerable. Maggie Smith and Ralph Fiennes make brief guest appearances and there's a performance of astonishing confidence from the exotically named 15-year-old Eros Vlahos as an outrageous little snob.