Lack of good storyline.

A Brilliant Conflict

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

It's 1942 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Otto Frank (Iain Glen) brings his wife Edith (Tamsin Greig), his daughters Margot (Felicity Jones), and Anne (Ellie Kendrick) to hide in a secret annex above his food and spice warehouse. They must keep quiet during the work day. Only the office staff Miep Gies (Kate Ashfield), Bep Voskuijl (Mariah Gale), Mr Kugler (Tim Dantay), and Mr Kleiman (Roger Frost) know the secret. The Franks are joined by Hermann Van Daan (Ron Cook), his brash wife Petronella (Lesley Sharp), and their son Peter (Geoff Breton). The final addition is dentist Albert Dussel (Nicholas Farrell) who becomes Anne's roommate. In the confined space, the personal conflicts mount. The Allies are closing in and freedom is almost at hand.This is like the Titanic. The sinking is inevitable but the story is still so compelling. Anne's modern humanity is undeniable. The performances are pitch perfect. Each character is well-defined and engaging. Ellie Kendrick is terrific in the lead. The mini-series ends with their capture. It makes no speculation about their informer. Their tragic ends are spelled out in text. I guess their horrific endings are subject for another time.

I love a good TV drama, and The Diary of Anne Frank is that. Along with Occupation, it was one of the highlights of 2009, having been profoundly moved and disturbed by the events detailed in Anne Frank's diary since I was a little girl in primary school, this was a harrowing, poignant, sensitive and wonderfully acted mini-series that stayed true to the book. The mini-series is exquisite to look at, stunning costumes and settings, and the house was exactly like the house in real life. The writing is unusually sensitive, I never felt the mini-series got overly-dramatic or overly-sentimental, quite the opposite, and I think the writing really helped with that. The direction is excellent, and the music is haunting and evocative. It was the acting though where the Diary of Anne Frank really soared. Ellie Kendrick, instead of the obnoxious teenager she could have been, made for an intelligent yet somewhat lively Anne, very like the Anne in the book. Iain Glen is charming as the perfect father figure and Tamsin Grieg is luminous and quiet as the mother. Lesley Sharp is exceptional as Petronella, a selfish and independent matriarch, her actions were very entertaining. Then there is the sudden discovery, even for those who had read the book it was emotional, intense and sudden. Overall, this is a brilliant mini-series, in my opinion it is a must see! 10/10 Bethany Cox

I have seen many versions of Anne Frank's story and I was really impressed by the quality of this version. The first good point is how is portraited Edith, it's the first time we can see how panicked she was when arrived in the annex. The second good point is the reaction of Otto by a personal letter written to him by Anne, something that had never been shown before.Thumbs up to Ellie Kendrick, the best Anne Frank so far and Lesley Sharp as Petronella. Lesley Sharp delivered the best Mrs. van Daan just as described in Anne Frank's Diary.I'm looking forward to the DVD!

First-class. Soap-length and almost soap-like, the great strength of this series is it's day-to-day realism. Free of invented sentiment or the sobriety of guilt or hindsight, writer Deborah Moggach and director Jon Jones work something believable and vital out of Anne Frank's eponymous journal. Rather than watch one finds oneself living through the action with its absurd pettiness and meagre (but treasured) consolations, with familiar tensions and thrills in circumstances not only unfamiliar but inconceivable.The cast are as high-calibre an ensemble as one could imagine. Impossible to identify favourites, I found the women most memorable. Ellie Kendrick is an ideal Anne, conjuring all the highs and lows of a girl forced to experience a compressed adolescence but leaving something terrifyingly real for the inevitable climax. Leslie Sharp and Tamsin Grieg play perigee and apogee of the Jewish hausfrau, pantomime dame and ashen-faced mouse: their Parthian ability to charm or bite can turn the experience of an episode inside out.Everything about this project seems to have worked - the perfect episode length, carefully-pitched drama of the highest calibre and broadcast at a time when everyone can absorb and, yes, even enjoy it. Highly recommended. 8/10