A Room for Romeo Brass (1999 Shane Meadows & co-scr)

There's two key sequences in A Room For Romeo Brass, which begins as a quirky comedy between friends Ben Marshall and Andrew Shim and the slightly pathetic and funny figure of Paddy Considine. The first is when Considine challenges Shim's dad Frank Harper, and whilst he doesn't seem afraid, you sense he's all mouth and no trousers. Thus when he suddenly launches a brutal attack on a random stranger who he thinks is after his girl Vicky McClure, it's quite shocking. The second is that when he's staked out the house, after Shim, it's Marshall's father - who up until this point has seem a complete waste of space - who takes a stand against the psycho, which almost costs him his nut.

Considine's speech mannerisms (before he goes psycho) are so funny.

It was the debut of Shim, Considine and McClure.

Paul Fraser - who also provided 'choreography' and was 'magic adviser' - wrote it with Meadows. It works as quirky/gritty - a difficult combination. But also credible e.g. that the youth doesn't want to go to hospital to visit his friend.

With Julia Ford and Ladene Hall as the mothers and Bob Hoskins as the teacher.

Photographed by Ashley Rowe, edited by Paul Tothill (Atonement).