Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1985)

One of the best films i have seen

Don't listen to the negative reviews

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's on DVD! (At last I can bin my beta-max tape.)I tried a few years ago to put together a stage version of BTK&GBV but it was quite some task trying to work out who held the performance rights. When I spoke to George Fenton (the EXCEPTIONALLY talented composer) he was flattered by my interest in the score but had no idea if there were any copies still in circulation. Obviously I was disheartened not get any further with the project but worse still is that the film print seemed to have disappeared as well. Thank goodness the DVD has now appeared.The cast is an interesting selection of talent, mostly seen on British TV rather than the movies. Never the less, an highly original musical - performed with GUSTO!

How utterly amazing to discover other fans of this iconic musical - OK, maybe a little OTT, but nonetheless, a worthy description. I first saw BTK when I was a demure early-teen, being granted permission to stay up past ten-o-clock. I drifted off to sleep that night with all these bizarre images floating through my head and for many years, hoped I would once again be able to watch this odd little film. Lady luck clearly didn't like any of us, though, did she?Thus began my quest (and a deep blossoming love of Bruce Payne, receding hairline unnoticed)but without the delights of the internet and technology not on my side, I sat in hope with fading memories of BTK, beginning to wonder if I didn't imagine the whole thing.Several years later, I forget when exactly, Channel 4 deemed to give us all a repeat performance - thank god for my Saisho VCR (it had cost me £250, earned through a long, hot summer slaving in a cafe at 15) and thereby began my plugging for this wonderful film.Years on, my copy was just about had it, particularly around 'green stamps', 'wednesday man' and 'the one' (oh how I love TO's fake cockney accent.... let's face it, he was quite posh in that Wesley Snipes movie)from constant reviewing. The VCR did actually out-live the tape.Whenever asked that ever-popular getting-to-know-you question of 'what's your fave movie?' my reply was always the same. No one else had ever even heard of BTK, let alone seen it.Imagine my supreme delight on checking my e-mail one day a couple of years ago, to discover an e-mail from a friend, informing me that BTK was to be shown on Film Four the following week. Convinced he had to be wrong, I checked the guide and blow-me-down, there it was! With no ad breaks!!!!!To this day, I am still trying to educate the masses with the odd little home-screenings and I think we're finally getting through. The indescribable fabulousness of the final credits track has turned me into one of those annoying people who refuses to leave the cinema until the VERY end. What if you were to miss the best bit?!! Well, I never will.And, as a final note, how tragic that when you try and explain who Phil Daniels is, the only way people know is when you tell them he did the voiceover on Blur's Parklife. Beyond tragic.

I've never gone back to comment on a film for a second time before. However, having finally managed to see BTK & the GBV on the big screen (never in a million years did I think I'd get that opportunity) I just had to say a few more words.I long ago lost count of how often I've seen this film but I was amazed at how much detail is lost when viewing it on a TV screen. Not only can so much more of the background be seen but the actors' expressions are so much clearer, which means the whole event is that much more enjoyable. I also found that the clever and sometimes intricate editing was much more noticable on a larger screen. I didn't mention him in my first review but Stephen Singleton did a brilliant job as editor and it's not surprising to find that he's been such a fixture in the work of various members of the production team.When the National Film Theatre announced that they were doing a 'Focus on Alan Clarke' season, I didn't think for one moment that his most obscure movie would be included in the line-up. As one of the twenty or so people in that cinema, I sat there with a big grin on my face from beginning to end. I just couldn't believe my luck.This really is surreal film making at its very best and a fine testimony to the brilliance of the late Alan Clarke.

I am a transplanted Brit, and I saw B.T.K. the time it aired on the brand new channel four. I have been in America for years and even the most fiendish film fans I've met here have neither seen nor heard of this film. Such a pity. It is brilliant, funny, and more stylish than Paris in spring. And it's the best title Ever.