This film is currently unavailable

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire
Alan Clarke’s once derided feature is surely the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history and a genuine cult artefact ripe for rediscovery.
Director: Alan Clarke
Overview
Once regarded as something of an oddity, if not a misstep, in the career of Alan Clarke, Billy the Kid is undoubtedly the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history and a genuine cult artefact destined for rediscovery.
One of the legendary television director’s few forays into features, Clarke collaborated with screenwriter Trevor Preston for the story of a duel between backstreet snooker player Billy Kid (Phil Daniels) and world champion Maxwell Randall (Alun Armstrong). The film was made at the height of snooker’s improbably success on British television, and Preston was inspired to write the tale from watching a showdown between young pretender Jimmy White and veteran Ray Reardon (nicknamed ‘Dracula). Clarke’s contrasting of ostentatious musical numbers with claustrophobic and sterile locations betray his longstanding interest in the work of Bertholt Brecht, and composer George Fenton (a recent Oscar-winner for Gandhi at the time) supplies the wonderful score with its eccentric songs and diverse switches of style. One of the strangest films to emerge from 1980s Britain (in a decade that offered a fair few contenders); Billy the Kid is a delightful slice of eccentricity from one of the UK’s most uncompromising filmmakers.
Related

Oh... Rosalinda!! Oh... Rosalinda!!
Musical 1956 99 mins Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Like the gloriously camp, all-singing, all-dancing cousin of The Third Man, the Archers’ take on Strauss’s operetta of infidelity is as frothy as the champagne it celebrates.

Babymother Babymother
Musical 1998 77 mins Director: Julian Henriques
Neeta and her crew rise to dancehall fame in North West London's Caribbean community, in the first Black British musical.

Mister Cinders Mister Cinders
Comedy 1935 69 mins Director: Friedrich Zelnik
Jolly gender-swapped musical version of Cinderella, featuring a play within the film in which the characters star in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

Kanarie Kanarie
Drama 2018 124 mins Director: Christiaan Olwagen
A Boy George-obsessed smalltown boy joins the South African Defence Force army choir, in this quirky Apartheid-era musical drama.

La La Land La La Land
Comedy 2016 128 mins Director: Damien Chazelle
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone channel old-school Hollywood glamour in this bright and playful romantic musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash).

Chi-Raq Chi-Raq
Musical 2015 127 mins Director: Spike Lee
Spike Lee’s bold and vivacious hip-hop musical restages an ancient Greek battle-of-the-sexes in 21st-century Chicago.

Achilles' Heel Achilles' Heel
Drama 1973 56 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke’s film of a day in the life of a professional footballer as he deals with the newfound pressures of money, glamour and celebrity in the 1970s game.

The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement
Crime 1969 53 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke directs this episode of a 13-part serial inspired by The Great Train Robbery of 1963, starring Peter Vaughan as the dogged detective on the case.

Chicken Run Chicken Run
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2000 84 mins Director: Peter Lord and Nick Park
Mel Gibson’s Rocky the rooster helps the chickens escape from fascistic farmers in Aardman Animations first foray into feature films.

Meantime Meantime
Drama 1983 107 mins Director: Mike Leigh
Tim Roth, Phil Daniels and Gary Oldman star in Mike Leigh’s TV film about an East End family try to stay afloat during a recession.

Anoop and the Elephant Anoop and the Elephant
Children's 1972 52 mins Director: David Eady
Fun-packed comedy for kids, in which a boy befriends a baby elephant – then teams up with his friends to stop it being sold

Possum Possum
Horror 2018 85 mins Director: Matthew Holness
"Can you spy him deep within? Little Possum. Black as sin." The reliably deranged Sean Harris is plagued by an evil puppet in this dark, brooding fable from Matthew Holness.

Made in Britain Made in Britain
Drama 1982 76 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Tim Roth burst onto British screens with his coruscating performance as a teenage skinhead in this TV play from Alan Clarke and David Leland.

Words of War Words of War
Drama 2025 117 mins Director: James Strong
Maxine Peake leads an excellent cast in this true story of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s fight to expose corruption and abuse in Putin’s Russia.

The Return The Return
Drama 2024 116 mins Director: Uberto Pasolini
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are superb in this moody and poignant adaptation of the final sections of Homer's Odyssey.

E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea
Drama-documentary 2024 90 mins Director: Beatrice Minger
A love triangle of jealousy in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in a stylish docufiction about the iconic artist and architect.

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Drama 2019 109 mins Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
A city-loving teacher struggling for inspiration travels to the most remote school in the world in this quietly majestic Academy Award-nominated drama.

Parthenope Parthenope
Drama 2024 136 mins Director: Paolo Sorrentino
An alluring young woman seeks a deeper sense of purpose after a tragedy, in Paolo Sorrentino’s deeply romantic epic.

One to One: John & Yoko One to One: John & Yoko
Documentary 2024 101 mins Director: Kevin Macdonald
Kevin Macdonald’s essential record of the former Beatle’s final full-length performance is a fascinating portrait of two artists in a state of flux.