Description: Set in Thatcher’s Britain of the 70’s and 80’s, a time when working class Manchester was beset by unemployment and riots, the film tells the story of 17 year-old Steven (Jack Lowden), a painfully shy, intellectually precocious loner who lives for, and writes about, the burgeoning local music scene—a surprisingly vibrant subculture in an otherwise drab industrial city. Too intimidated to join that scene, he writes reviews from the sidelines, imagining what he would do if he were on stage. When one of his write-ups is noticed by kindred spirit Linder Sterling (Jessica Brown Findlay), an aspiring painter, the two become fast friends, and she pushes him to form a band and take to the stage. Steven finally works up the courage to book a club date, and performs a dazzling cover of an old girl-group standard. This is the first time the world gets to hear the distinctive, emotion-filled voice that would eventually propel him to stardom. That very night, a manager reaches out with an offer. Unfortunately, it's only for the musicians, not the lead singer, meaning Steven will be left behind. His dreams of a musical career vanish and he's left with nothing but wasted days at a soul-crushing civil servant job, and lonely nights holed up in the same bedroom he’s slept in his whole life. Only his mother’s unwavering belief in his talent, and Linder’s constant reminder—“be yourself, everyone else is taken”—give him the strength to keep trying to become the artist he was always meant to be.