Stalin's Sickle

I think one of the hardest forms of filmmaking is doing a satisfying half-hour drama because it's such an incredibly limited time frame. You've got very little time to set up a satisfying storyline and establish characters in depth — you can only really imply them. So when one sees a story that leaps out and begs to be filmed within that format it becomes very tempting.

– Director Costa Botes on deciding that Michael Morrisey's short story Stalin's Sickle would make a good half-hour film, The Listener, 17 October 1987, page 34

It's about how a young child perceieves the world and how children can alter the most basic facts and use them as raw material for the most extravagant fantasies. 

– Director and co-writer Costa Botes in The Listener, 17 October 1987, page 34

Remember, we are the lucky ones. We have the keys to the kingdom of heaven. There are evil people in the world Daniel: roamng, seeking whom they may devour. It is our duty to spread the gospel, to fight evil and save such poor public children.

– Father Connolly (Stephen Gledhill) advises Daniel to turn the other cheek, after being insulted by some Protestant children

Dad, what are Communists really like?

– Daniel (Stacey Adams)

...That's one thing they definitely don't do — Commies don't go to church.

– Daniel's father (Ashley Sumner)