World Premiere: Billy Liar

Few films tell a heartbreaking story as hilariously as this must-see 1960s British New Wave classic in which Tom Courtenay stars in this tale of a young clerk lost to daydreams in his Yorkshire hometown. But will they ever come true? One of the cornerstones of the 1960 British new wave, Billy Liar, like Whistle Down the Wind (which screens on Sun 26 July 10:30) put Northern working life on screen capturing its dramas and dialects. The original book by Keith Waterhouse had a successful stage adaptation starring Albert Finney. Schlesinger cast Finney's understudy Tom Courtney in what would become a defining performance as the day-dreaming disillusioned Yorkshire undertaker's clerk Billy Fisher. To escape the mundanities of working life, Billy creates the fictionalised world Ambrosia where he is the hero and can escape the emotional complications of his two fiancés! Whilst the British New Wave films of the late 50s and early 60s celebrated Northern life, Billy Liar - made in 1963 - is very much aware of the imminent arrival of the swinging sixties embodied here by a luminous Julie Christie who plays Billy's former girlfriend Liz. Her entrance in the film is one of the many high points of this heartbreakingly hilarious classic shown here newly restored to mark John Schlesinger's centenary. A 4K restoration c/o STUDIOCANAL and presented as part of Rip it Up, a BFI FAN UK-wide season.