Allelujah

Friday, March 17th, 2023    Reviewed by:Nicola Webb

6/10 IMDb
57% Metacritic

When the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital is threatened with closure, it fights back by galvanizing the local community. The hospital invites a news crew to film the preparations for a concert honouring its most distinguished nurse.

Based on a 2018 play by ‘national treasure’ Alan Bennett, Allelujah is summed up as a “darkly amusing look at frontline healthcare”. With a stellar cast of British talent – Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Saunders and Derek Jacobi, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calls it a “gentle, shrewd ensemble comedy”.

He adds: “…this watchable, undemanding drama rolls along capably, enlivened by unmistakably Bennettian gags and drolleries which come along every minute or so.”

Variety says it “wavers tonally between cosy comedy and head-on polemic… a gathering of Britain’s national treasures, in effect, in aid of the greatest national treasure of all – the NHS”.