Saturday October 6                    Starter for 10                 12A certificate

UK, 2006               Directed by Thomas Vaughan, Starring James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, 97 minutes

This is your chance to enjoy a British gem which, in spite of critical praise, had an inexplicably short cinema release earlier this year. James McAvoy stars as Brian, a trivia obsessed Essex boy who wins a place at Bristol University in the mid 1980’s. The film charts the ups and downs of a working class lad’s first year at Uni, and the learning curves that ensue – the perilous path of true love, the excruciating embarrassments, the negotiation of class, and lessons in the ways of the world. It culminates in the realisation of Brian’s ambition to be on University Challenge, and the re-creation of the game show, with Mark Gattiss as a textbook Bamber Gascoigne, is a real treat. Starter for 10 is a delightful rites of passage tale, rich in wit and bittersweet nostalgia, expertly crafted, and with a cracking 80’s soundtrack to boot. Not to be missed (especially for those James McAvoy completists out there…).

Back to Index