Captivating and heart-warming, when it was released in 2001 Very Annie-Mary was greeted as the latest in a long line of small, quirky British comedies. In fact, Very Annie-Mary is a proudly Welsh film, celebrating the eccentricity of a small town in the valleys where the inhabitants certainly suffer deprivation but are by no means isolated from the outside world. They simply plough their own furrow. None more so than Annie-Mary herself, a 30-year-old woman trapped in gawky adolescence by the death of her mother and subsequent years of repression by her father, the Pavarotti-obsessed town baker (brilliant Jonathan Pryce). In a plot slightly reminiscent of Little Voice, she has lost her prize-winning singing voice, apparently forever.

Played with resolute intensity by Rachel Griffiths, Annie-Mary is hardly odder than her fellow townsfolk. But when her father has a stroke and she is thrown on her own awkward resources to fulfil both her personal dreams and those of her mortally sick friend Bethan, she finds unique comic ways to cope with disaster. Redemption comes with the return of her ability to sing.

The excellent cast includes cameos from Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys as the gay couple who run the sweet shop and Ruth Madoc as a libidinous widow. Everyone delivers all-stops-out performances in even the smallest roles. The promising script is loaded with one-liners; but its constituent parts promise more than they eventually deliver. --Piers Ford

"Based on the novels by Zane Grey. 'Nevada' is the story of a man who wins seven thousand dollars, this is then taken by Ben Ide who uses the money to buy mining equipment... 'West Of The Pecos' tells the story of Colonel Lambeth and his daughter Rill, who head west and become lost in the desert. They are saved by Pecos and Chito and soon become involved in Peco's troubles... 'Code Of The West' is the story of Bob Wade who takes a stand against a man called Carter who intends to run a railroad through the local homesteads. 'Wanderer Of The Wasteland' tells the story of Adam Larey who is on the hunt for his father's killer..."