Description: Growing up in the wreckage of post-war Liverpool should be a grim experience for sensitive eleven-year-old Bud. He lives in rain-drenched, lice-ridden impoverishment with his mother and hordes of siblings. The secondary school he's just started attending is a breeding ground for bigots and bullies and Bud's the punch-bag. Yet Davies' film is an ode to childhood bliss. It evokes the confused thrill of sexual awakening, the addictive buzz of a favourite pop tune, the warmth of a doting mother's embrace, the happiness of a family sing-song. And, most effectively, the wide-eyed wonder inspired by cinema itself as Bud bunks off church to worship Hollywood's idols at his local picture house. [Channel Four Films]