Kino Eye: Billy Liar re-released

Based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse, Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963) is a classic of the British social realist "new wave", along with films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. However, it can be viewed as the last of its kind.

A critic once wrote that it was the moment when British filmmaking left the North behind, caught the train to London and geared up for the so-called "Swinging Sixties".

Billy, played by Tom Courtenay, lives in Bradford, works in an undertaker’s office. He wants to shake off his dull existence, move to London and become a writer. The problem for Billy is that he is a fantasist and a hopeless dreamer. In the Bradford of the early Sixties these are not qualities that will take you very far.

He is hemmed in on all side, by his fiancée, his parents and his employer, Mr Shadrack (played by the brilliant Leonard Rossitter). In response, he escapes into the fantasy world of an invented kingdom, Ambrosia, where (in his dreams) as a general on horseback he leads a military parade, cheered by adoring crowds.

Spurred on by his friendship with Liz (Julie Christie) he finally decides to make the break and accompany her to London and establish himself as a writer. But he doesn’t. He gets as far as the railway station, buys his ticket but dithers about and misses the train. Liz makes her way to London on her own and Billy remains stuck in Bradford. The restored version of Billy Liar is in cinemas from 31 July.