Billy Elliot

Stephen Daldry’s first feature grew from a Lee Hall script first called Dancer, read at Live Theatre in Newcastle in 1998. Hall says Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photo book Step by Step, on a North Shields dance school, shaped almost every frame. The film supplies its own reason for the ballet class being in the boxing gym: the strike has turned its basement studio into a soup kitchen. It is not scenery outside, it is what has taken the room where the dancing happens. About two thousand boys were seen, Jamie Bell went through some seven auditions, and choreographer Peter Darling worked him eight hours a day for three months. The seven week shoot ran around Easington Colliery from August 1999. The close jumps to 1998: the adult Billy is danced by Adam Cooper in Matthew Bourne’s all male Swan Lake. Three Oscar nominations, no wins: Directing, Actress in a Supporting Role (Julie Walters), Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Three BAFTA wins: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bell), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Walters), Outstanding British Film. The BBFC certificate is 15, for frequent strong language. A good fit if you accept Billy shown as a finished professional only in the last scene, in another dancer’s body. Not for a gentle family evening; the household talk never softens.