From the poverty and despair of an English industrial town, one man with a dream (Bob Hoskins) forms a boxing club to give troubled teenagers a fighting chance. The lads learn lessons of self-respect and male bonding, but amidst the triumph of the biggest tournament of their lives, tragedy strikes. Shane Meadows' debut features gritty black-and-white cinematography that perfectly captures the desolation of working-class life in post-Thatcher Britain.