This is another slew of dramas or comedies which we have had in the last few years set in the 1970s. Maybe the writers and directors have hit 40 and getting nostalgic about their youth.

Set in the summer of 1976 where Britain had a hot summer leading to a drought, Vivienne May (Minnie Driver) a teacher in South Wales, a free spirit wants to put an end of year production of The Tempest with rock songs. Its all so Jesus Christ Superstar.

The kids leaving school face an uncertain future, many of them are going to go into mediocre jobs. At least Viv has the support of the headmaster as some of the more conservative teachers disapprove of her plans. They only see kids as fit for factory work or going down the mines.

There is nothing really original in Hunky Dory although the songs blend in well with the musical particularly the ELO numbers.

Its a coming of age tale as some of the kids are dealing with their sexuality, machismo, girlfriend/boyfriend trouble and in one case hanging around with skinheads.

It all leads up with the production of the musical in the opening night and all the turmoil associated with it.

Its a small scale feel-good musical, nice but I felt the tone was all over the place ranging from comedy to drama and back again. Apparently the final credits indicates that this might be based on true events.

In retrospect having been around at that time, in some sense these kids never had it so good, at least they had some sort of job to go to after leaving school. Just wait until 1979 when Mrs Thatcher enters Downing Street and closes a lot of the factories down.

Is it not possible for many screenwriters to put together a script without having to resort to totally unnecessary expletives and are they capable of stringing a sentence together when speaking without using it? Time and time again I have to endure a movie with foul language being used in virtually every other word. The vast majority of these movies end up with a 15 certificate because of it but if the script was written without this it could be released as a PG or even a 'U' and therefore available to a much wider audience.

The movie could be seen by a much wider audience and the lack of expletives would enhance the movie no end.

Hunky Dory is one such movie the foul language used was totally unnecessary and completely spoilt a potentially truly enjoyable experience.

SPOILER BEGINS

Vivienne Mae (Minnie Driver) is a drama teacher who wants her students to perform a musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest but the students are totally apathetic and she has her work cut out to get them enthusiastic.

SPOILER ENDS

This had the makings of a very entertaining movie spoilt only by the constant use of expletives. Even Vivienne, the teacher used it in front of her students, but the students were no better.

I know one thing, if my teachers used this language in front of their students they would soon be out of a job.

I have given this movie a '3' rating simply because of the totally uncalled for and constant foul language but if that was absent I can see me awarding it a '7' or '8'.

I must admit that there are possibly 100s of movies which have been given 15 certificates because of the bad language but could and would have been wonderful all round entertainment, even for young children had the script not contained expletives.

Very astute of the submitter in the Character section of the Goofs to remind us that ELO's "Livin' Thing" was not known until later in 1976 as it was released in November along with parent album "A New World Record". "Hunky Dory" is a creature of the late spring of that year.

Nonetheless, the choice of music in this movie, as a remark, is simply outstanding. It finely captures that moment when the singer songwriter sound of the early 70s was giving way to late glam and early new wave sensibilities (a la Ferry, Bowie, Lee, Drake, Lynne). In fact, a book has been written ("Hollywood Film 1963-1976: Years of Revolution and Reaction") that pinpoints 1976 as the pivot year when the cultural reign of the 60s and early 70s ended.

As a disclaimer, I don't know what music was being played on the BBC in pre-Thatcher Wales; would she actually have been seen on BBC nightly television in 1976, three years ahead of her ascendancy, as she does in the film? But I do wonder about other culturally significant music of 1976 that might have been overlooked.

As a leading example, the advent of Queen's "A Night of the Opera," generally acclaimed the Sgt. Peppers of the 70s, plops squarely in May of 1976 when "You're My Best Friend" was picking up steam as the followup single to enormous "Bohemian Rhapsody," and the Elizabethan "39" was starting to haunt the airwaves. Irish heavy rockers Thin Lizzy sprang from regional jail at that moment and John Miles, whose title cut,"Stranger in the City," was a great, if passing, anthem to weary youth in Britain, peaking around April 1976.

Genesis' "Trick of the Tale" was a breakout commercial LP from 1976, loaded with snappy art-rock tracks, bespeaking a sense of melancholy associated with life change in English youth, though this might have been more suited to highbrow Charterhouse and Ellesmere, the latter featured as bedrock in 1978's Richard Burton vehicle, "Absolution".

The Rolling Stones released "Black and Blue" in April 1976 carrying a couple of textured, sentimental songs in single "Fool to Cry" and sadly reflective "Memory Motel," both all over the radio then. Too American sounding?

In the obverse, I question whether Ontario's Rush had really arrived in Wales at that point to the extent that the schoolboys could play, chord for chord, with no charts, a good bit of "Passage to Bangkok" on the brand new "2112" album. If you need a guitar-heavy AOR entry, why not England's Foghat? "Fool for the City" was sitting right there on album playlists in May of 1976.

Finally, 1976, of course, was the year of Peter Frampton, I am imagining the brilliant live versions of "I Wanna Go to the Sun" or "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" as fitting period citations of prep yearning for flight. I won't mention anything about "Born to Run," the sensation of that stateside season, released several months prior to May of 76, as Middle Atlantic bravado would not sync with "Hunky Dory's" more woozy, Welsh bard effect. Nor would a recent UK platinum smash by The Three Degrees and its spawning movement, (gasp) disco, whose 1975 afterbirth, populated the times.

As a PostScript, I loved the choices of both "Strange Magic" and "One Summer's Dream," both underrated ELO dreamers. I can't help wanting more ELO from the period (understanding there is only room for two in this multi-artist effort) as their current "Face the Music" sported heady standards like "Nightrider" and "Waterfall"; and if we look back just several months earlier, the "El Dorado" album's ultimate orchestral Beatles paean, "Can't Get it Out of My Head".

We have only one film here, and "Hunky Dory" made its choices. My curiosity aside, they are fine decisions.