Purely Belter is a humorous but poignant drama from Film Four starring Chris Beattie and Greg McLane as two Newcastle teenagers who embark on a series of money-raising schemes in a desperate attempt to raise the necessary funds to buy Newcastle United season tickets. The whole story positively crunches with Northern grit and the ghost of Ken Loach clomps away in the background throughout the film, but acclaimed writer/director Mark Herman (Brassed Off, Little Voice) sets a fine balance between character and situation which is strong enough to carry the story despite its reliance on stereotypes. The humour ranges from the superbly under-stated (the fire-eating scene is a classic) to the rather nasty (the occasion which sees the two main protagonists demanding money from a woman for "looking after" her car is about as funny as a rape scene), but it all ends in a more upbeat fashion than Jonathan Tulloch's novel The Season Ticket on which the film is based. --Roger Thomas