M-Net is screening the comedy fantasy Nanny McPhee directed by Kirk Jones with Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Kelly McDonald, Angela Lansbury for M-Net.

Emma Thompson took nine years to write the screenplay for this charming fairytale, which she adapted from Christianna Brand’s popular Nurse Matilda books. The story is set in Victorian London, where frazzled Mr Brown, a widower who earns a pittance working at a funeral parlour, struggles to control his seven mischievous children. They have already sent 17 nannies packing, and unless the next one works out, he doesn’t know what he’ll do. To make matters worse, his rich aunt is threatening to cut him off without a penny unless he finds a wife.

Enter Nanny McPhee, a hideous looking woman with a big nose, warts and a protruding tooth. Different from every other nanny the children have ever had, she manages to win them over with her blend of common sense and magic. And as their behaviour improves, so do her looks, until she is almost lovely.

Nanny also manages to play fairy godmother to Cinderella – er - Evangeline, the pretty scullery maid who would be perfect for Mr Brown, if he weren’t so obsessed with marrying the unsuitable Selma! A magical movie filled with dancing donkeys, pastel-coloured lambs, toads in teapots and a valuable lesson: there are consequences for bad behaviour …