High Rise Donkey

High Rise Donkey is a 1980 children's comedy film directed by Michael Forlong and starring Leigh Gotch, Wendy Cook and Linda Frith. It was written by T.E.B. Clarke and produced by Anvil Film and Recording Group, sponsored by the Children's Film Foundation.

Synopsis

Three children stable a donkey in a high rise flat to save it from being sold as horse-meat by two small-time crooks.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Veteran talent from the British film industry continues to take shelter in the Children's Film Foundation: here we find T. E. B. Clarke, Hugh Stewart, along with the usual gallery of familiar supporting players. But anyone looking for a reprise of the Ealing spirit in Clarke's script will be sadly disappointed, unless one counts a faint whiff of Whisky Galore when all the flats' assorted frogs, tortoises, goldfish, snakes and mice are hurried away or hidden from the caretaker's prying eyes. The bulk of the material is defiantly ordinary, the dialogue offering little more than a simple verbal commentary on the action, sprinkled with a few choice sermons and morsels of slang so old-fashioned that they backfire. By CFF standards, this is distinctly average entertainment."