Those Glory, Glory Days

Julie Welch, football writer on The Observer, has written a charming - perhaps too charming - tale of schoolgirl enthusiasm based on her own youthful adulation of Tottenham Hotspur's '60s captain Danny Blanchflower. Only flashes of the acerbic wit and gift for satirical characterisation that graced her teleplay Singles are evident in this drawn-out and cloying contribution to David Puttnam's First Love series for C4 (unwisely given a cinema release after being seen on TV). 14-year-old Zoe Nathenson acts her heart out as the football-mad Julia, but the film itself, though likeable enough, never catches fire.