Won't You Be My Neighbor? review – shining a light on a kindly kids' TV idol

Morgan Neville’s doc celebrates a role model for a generation of children in the US, Fred Rogers, who was, it seems, genuinely sincere and caring

For Gen-X Americans, particularly ones at the older end of the generation’s spectrum, children’s TV star Fred Rogers was more than just a genial middle-aged man in a cardigan with a train set. Even the overused word “icon” doesn’t come close to capturing his centrality to their childhoods.

As the host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, one of the PBS network’s keystone programmes for kids (alongside Sesame Street) from the late 60s onwards, he was for many the first star they would have been aware of, a friend who spoke straight to them in a gentle, oddly stilted, faintly southern drawl. As they grew older, Mr Rogers might come to be someone they mocked or imagined had a dark secret not fit for younger viewers. This documentary by Morgan Neville reveals that he really was just what he seemed to be at first innocent sight: a kind-hearted, square but saintly man who genuinely loved and understood children in a pure, sincere way.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JMiUqN