Well, what a New Years Day treat for me. Flicking through the Radio Times and feeling thoroughly fed up with the TV offerings throughout the holiday period, I stumbled across the New Years Day listings and found that The Sound of Music was to be shown on BBC1 and, with a slight overlap, Grease was on ITV. So it appears I may like my musicals. Paul groaned and made the (valid!) point that I had them both on video but I banished him to the bedroom (to decorate) and sat down to enjoy just over 4 hours of classic film.

Enter Julie Andrews. Her character, Maria, is a young nun who has trouble following the rules of the Abbey. She enjoys music and the Austrian mountains and we first meet her enjoying the large open spaces outside the Abbey and, against a backdrop of breathtaking scenery, she launches into song number one, the title track “The Sound of Music.” Because of Maria’s youth and exuberance it isn’t too long before Mother Abbess decides to take some action and arranges for her to live a little in the outside world. Maria has come straight into the Abbey at a very young age and Mother Abbess’ wisdom suggests that she needs to see something of life before deciding whether Abbey life and being a nun are really for her.

At first the children are reluctant to accept Maria as their governess. Liesl, the eldest at 16, thinks herself too grown up to need a governess and as many governesses have come and gone in the von Trapp household, the other children take a while to trust her. But through her love of music and her ability to entertain the children in this way, Maria soon wins them round. Liesl learns to acknowledge Maria as a confidant, especially as her early romance with Ralph, a local boy, starts to develop.

We also learn that Maria is the first person to bring music and happiness back into the von Trapp household since the death of the mother and wife. This in turn leads to the main romantic interest in the film, the relationship between Maria and Georg. The captain already has a replacement wife in place in the form of Baroness Schraeder and Maria is well aware of this but at a party held by the baroness and captain she ends up dancing with Georg and starts to have feelings that she doesn’t know how to handle – she is a nun, remember!

It is at this point that the film takes a more serious and historical stance. There have been brief references to the war up to this point and we are aware of Captain von Trapp’s viewpoint towards the Germans. He strongly believes that Austria should remain Austrian and refuses to fight for the Germans, even though there has been a Nazi takeover of his country. The songs in the film now become fewer and the story focuses on how Georg von Trapp will escape his call up to fight.

Their escape begins with them performing as the von Trapp Family Singers in a local competition. Nazis surround the theatre with the intention of taking the captain once the performance is over but the family make their way to the Abbey and to the relative security of the nuns while they are announced as winners in the contest. When they don’t appear on stage to collect their first place prize suspicions are raised and they are hunted down. Due to some quick thinking by the nuns, the von Trapps manage to make their way over the Austrian mountains and into Switzerland.

The Sound of Music has a running time of 165 minutes and can be purchased on video or DVD. Amazon are selling it from the tiny price of £5.10 (video) and Play.com are currently selling the DVD at £14.99. Or, of course, you can watch it for free once a year on terrestrial TV! It has a U certificate, is the epitome of a family film and comes thoroughly recommended.