Of all the great boxing films made about the sport, nothing quite stands out as so original or indeed so strange as this little known UK classic from 1986.
Mixing elements of fiction with documentary reportage it tells the story of a television researcher (brilliantly played by the character actor Ray Stubbs) as he travels to a UK coastal town to write a script and get to the heart of the sport itself and the working class fight dream.
Set in Hartlepool during the town's economic collapse, it explores how its residents attempt to seek escapism through the exploits of one of the towns most successful boxers, George Feeney, and the esteemed trainer George Bowes.
Featuring brilliant fight footage and a sense of what it was like to be working class and living in that period, there's an almost hallucinatory, claustrophobic feel to it. It's no party political broadcast however. It's poetic and ahead of its time and captures the grass roots heartbeat of the sport perfectly. All in all its a wonderful hour to behold.
