It is the late 1970s and twenty-something Christopher Fowler is obsessively watching lousy films in run-down fleapit cinemas. He longs to become a famous screenwriter and so heads for Wardour Street with an armful of terrible scripts.

But he arrives just as Britain’s filmmakers are being brought to their knees by the arrival of video and the destruction of the old movie palaces, reduced to making smutty low budget farces and TV spin-offs. And instead of being asked to write another Bullitt, Chris is churning out short films about boilers and nylon sheets. Somehow he finds success, albeit not quite the sort he’d expected.

Hilarious and acutely observed, Film Freak is both an entertaining trawl through the arse-end of the British film industry and an affecting search for friendship and happiness.