Ballet Shoes

Ballet Shoes (2008) is a BBC family drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Sandra Goldbacher adapted Noel Streatfield's beloved 1936 novel: three orphaned girls — Pauline, Petrova and Posy — are collected from across the world by an eccentric explorer called Gum and raised as sisters in 1930s London.

When Gum leaves on another expedition and doesn't come back, the money runs dry. Their guardian Sylvia, played by Emilia Fox, starts taking in lodgers. The girls enrol at a theatre school to help pay their way. Emma Watson plays Pauline, who gravitates toward acting. Yasmin Paige is Petrova, who only wants to fly planes. Lucy Boynton is Posy, whose whole world is ballet. Richard Griffiths, Gemma Jones and Eileen Atkins round out the household.

The film earns its warmth — these children work for what they want, and the adults around them can't simply fix things. Stream Ballet Shoes (2008) in full online on iFILM.