"The Heaviest Backpack"

14 May 2024

90s

Carry me.

The humble backpack is one of adland's go-to accessories. It can be used to approach all manner of subjects, like financial worries and teenage curiosity. BBC Children in Need use it to show how psychological burdens weigh children and young people down wherever they go.

Whether he's at home, in school, or out and about with friends, the protagonist wears his dark red backpack like a trooper. Teachers may tell him to sit up and pay attention or note that he's late to class, but the bag stays invisible to them and his peers. They may not see it, but he feels it.

Instead of the normal school paraphernalia, he carries the noise, the arguments, and the stress of home. The way he adjusts the straps every so often is well-judged, as is the way directors thirtytwo make the bag bigger by degrees. Such a weighty idea needs a light touch to work, so the charity will be delighted by what Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace have accomplished

So, what does a 'win' for Children in Need look like? How about when the boy walks into a youth centre and takes the weight of the world off his shoulders for a game of pool—an act viewers can't help but feel as well.

UK

TV Programmes