It was hardly rocket science, but the recent BBC 1 serial Rocket Man seemed to me to successfully combine many elements, and many levels of interpretation under the guise of warm, funny, feel good, family viewing.  Ideal Sunday evening ‘blob-out’ viewing and at the same time, for me anyway, thought provoking.

The basic plot line was the well-travelled route of downtrodden skilled craftsmen triumphing over adversity but the bye ways of teenage dreams and relationships, infertility, depression, bereavement, literacy difficulties, kitchen sink science (literally in the final episode), community spirit, letting go and moving on all added depth and richness without it degenerating into the gloom and despond of the average British soap.  Whilst the story had a happy ending – rocket launched, widower father and children set free to face the future and infertile couple expecting triplets – it wasn’t too neat or contrived, the scrap yard had closed down, the new relationships were tentative, the way ahead was uncharted and perilous…

The tag line left the way open for a sequel. Personally, I hope there isn’t one. A second series would lose the charm of this warm story of hopes and dreams.  The messiness of real life, with broken dreams and clay-footed heroes combined with the hope of a new start seemed to have echoes of the story we retell every Christmas.  I’m sure the scriptwriter’s intentions and my ‘reading’ were wildly divergent, but it was good in this age of cynicism and pushing the pre-watershed boundaries to experience something my mother would describe as ‘wholesome family entertainment.’