Paddy's in the Carsey

A group of Paddington lads recreate a typical night out in their West London stomping ground. The film's director John Fletcher (who appears in the film) was one of the key figures in the progressive Free Cinema Movement, working alongside Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz. Ten years on, the same raw experimental approach that defined the movement is applied here.

With its naturalistic, documentary style (bar the frenetic Keystone Kops-inspired final sequence) and its commitment to truthfully rendering its working-class subjects, Paddy's in the Carsey strongly conjures the spirit of Free Cinema, especially We are the Lambeth Boys (1959), which Fletcher edited. Both films follow a group of London teenagers, but while the Lambeth boys were happy with an orange soda at the Alford Youth Club, seven years on, the Paddington lads' idea of a good night out invariably involves Guinness and a punch-up on the dancefloor. As one of the lads amusingly asserts: "people are just more mature these days than what they used to be". The piano music accompanying the Keystone Kops-style sequence was provided by Howard Blake whose other film credits include the highly-acclaimed score for animated film, The Snowman (1982). The band playing in the club is the Beatles-inspired The Sugar Beats, vocals courtesy of John Perry. Perry subsequently formed beat bands The Strollers, The Castaways and Grapefruit. He then joined the soul band Herbie Goins and The Night-timers.