London to Brighton

To be shown: 4 February 2008

UK 2006.
Director: Paul Andrew Williams.
Starring: Lorraine Stanley, Johnny Harris, Georgia Groome.
Certificate 18. 85 minutes.

Synopsis

The most acclaimed British film for years.
Behind every violent villain is another more vicious and evil and he in turn is scared of the man behind him and at the bottom of this heap are girls like Kelly.
Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) and Joanne (Georgia Groome) are terrified. Kelly's face is battered and cut and she tells her desperate young companion that they must leave London and catch the next train to Brighton. It 's 3am - will they survive to catch it?
The strength of this tense and engaging film is that you immediately want to know why they are so desparate, how did they get like this.
Kelly is a street prostitute but she steps outside her blind obedience to her pimp when she is asked to find a younger girl for a client.
She finds Joanne who is twelve years old and has recently run away from home. Kelly knows the fate that awaits Joanne but cannot abandon her to it and so they are running scared.
The film is intercut with flashbacks and the clue to past and present is often the woeful state of Kelly's face.
She is streetwise enough to know that she will still find punters and even that some will want a discount.
Joanne quickly regains her confidence under the protection of her new friend but Kelly knows the desperate trouble they are in so she does the business and watches their backs.
Derek, her pimp, you are pleased to find out is also very scared - of Stuart - played with cold eyed precision by Sam Spruell. Stuart has found his Dad in a very bad way and Derek must find Kelly quickly to provide the answers.
London to Brighton is the first feature film from director Paul Andrew Williams. You have probably never heard of the leading players yet here is a vastly enjoyable experience which engages you with the characters and keeps you tense and involved for every 85 minutes.

Notes

Paul Andrew Williams both wrote and directed London to Brighton.

The main characters in London to Brighton featured for the first time in the director’s short film Royalty (2001).

Lorraine Stanley, a 30 year old actress playing 25 year old Kelly, must be slightly rueful that she has made so much impact in her first starring role in a film looking so wrecked.

Georgia Groome was a 14 year old when picked to play 12 year old Joanne. She was a member of ITV Junior Workshop in Nottingham when she auditioned for the film.

In 1903 an American documentary From London to Brighton was made of a remarkable feat of ball walking by a young girl who covered that distance - yup - on a ball.