"Actor: Jim R. Coleman"

• Riff Raff | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £13.77   |  Saving you £2.22 (16.12%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stevie a young Glaswegian just out of Barlinnie prison comes down to London and gets a job on a building site - a melting pot of itinerant laborers from all over the country. Here he has to contend with Mick the bossy ganger trying - but usually failing to control his workers Shem Mo and Larry and the other lads as they duck and dive the rules and regulations of the building trade. Stevie has other problems to contend: the wages are low the site teems with rats he has nowhere to sleep and life in London isn't that easy. One day on his way to work Stevie finds a handbag in a skip. He takes it back to it owner and meets Susan. As Stevie and Susan learn to live with the ups and downs of life in London Riff-Raff builds a portrait - sometimes gritty often funny of life as it is lived in the margins.

• Riff Raff | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £18.45   |  Saving you £-8.46 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Although not of a genre readily associated with Ken Loach, Riff Raff is basically a romantic comedy--albeit one set against the backdrop of political and social injustice. Robert Carlyle is young Glaswegian Stevie, newly relocated to London and sleeping rough. He finds a job on a building site and embarks on a relationship with Irish singer Susan (McCourt). The struggle that both the couple and their friends and workmates (the film is very much an ensemble piece) have to endure just to survive life on the margins of society paints a grim picture of early 1990s Britain, but also one that is shot through with resilient humour. Much of this comes from from Ricky Tomlinson's sublime performance, one that pre-dates his Royle Family role but bears all the hallmarks of his comic genius. Some of the political interjections are understandably a little dated and a touch heavy-handed, but Riff Raff is a film that successfully combines a sense of righteous indignation with a warm heart. --Phil Udell