One of the most popular discoveries at Cannes this year, Billy Elliot is set in a Durham village during the miners' strike in 1983. It features a remarkable young newcomer, Jamie Bell (above), as an 11-year-old schoolboy who incurs the wrath of his widowed father (Gary Lewis), a striking miner, when he switches from boxing to ballet lessons. Julie Walters features as the boy's ballet teacher in this delightful movie which marks an auspicious cinema debut for the renowned London and Broadway theatre director, Stephen Daldry. It opens countrywide on Friday.