Stephanie Beacham took time out from crossing verbal swords with Joan Collins in 'Dynasty' to jet to Prague to play monstrous Victorian governess Letitia Slighcarp, whose twisted schemes put Disney's Cruella DeVille to shame. She and Mel Smith, as rotund Dickensian sidekick, Mr Grimshaw, are the best things in this very dark children's fantasy from the superb Joan Aiken novel. It's a familiar story of two adventurous girls from different social backgrounds who are abandoned into a nightmare world of the workhouse and poverty. All the elements are in place for a classic children's film along the lines of 'The Railway Children'; but somewhere down the line they refused to gell, even though the settings are brilliant. As to the wolves of the title, they look more like Alsatian pets and never likely to devour our young heroines.

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