A Boy Called Dad

Here’s another contemporary British drama that would have been better made for TV and trimmed down to a lean 60 minutes. There’s no problem with the acting. Ian Hart is faultless as Liverpool painter and decorator Joe – feckless, funny, heart somewhere near the right place – who ran out on his young family years ago. Newcomer Kyle Ward plays his son Robbie, now 14 and also a dad after getting a girl from school pregnant. Father and son haven’t seen each other for years, but Robbie recognises dad from the photos when he spots him on the street. The humour in these early scenes is all warmth and sharp edges and this could have been an acute little film about broken families. Instead – and maybe it’s the pressure to write it bigger-than-life for the big screen – the plot becomes more outlandish as Robbie goes on the run with his baby after a fight, with dad close behind. None of it is believable for a minute.