Billy Liar (PG)

One of the cornerstones of the 1960 British new wave, Billy Lair put Northern working life on screen capturing its dramas and dialects. 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.

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.

Cinema Rediscovered on Tour is a Watershed project in association with Wiper & True and collaboration with principal sponsors Park Circus and StudioCanal. With support from BFI Audience Projects Fund awarding National Lottery funding.