Screened to critical acclaim at Edinburgh and nominated for several Scottish Baftas, Kenny Glenaan’s Derbyshire drama follows the lives of Shaun (Robert Carlyle) and Daz, whose lifelong friendship is bound by a childhood accident.
Learning that Daz has a matter of weeks to live, brought on to a large extent by his alcoholism, Shaun confronts the painful memories of the eventful summer that ultimately defined the paths of both men’s lives.
As a teenager, Shaun’s undiagnosed dyslexia leads to expulsion from school, petty crime and an inevitable run in with the law that ends in tragedy. Up to this point his only respite comes in the form of his girlfriend Katy but, his life seeming bent on self-destruction, he loses her too.
Told in flashback, a certain inevitability lends poignancy to the dappled summer spent bunking off school and swimming in the river as we wait to learn when and how Daz is injured. Robert Carlyle deftly delivers a sensitive portrayal of a man haunted by lost possibilities.