NOWHERE BOY CHANNEL 4 MOVIE PREMIERE

UK | Channel 4 | AIRDATE: Sunday 2 October 2011 @ 10.00pm

British artist Sam Taylor-Wood makes her feature directorial debut with Nowhere Boy, a Film4-funded exploration of John Lennon’s early life. The biopic opens in 50s Liverpool, with the teenage Lennon (Aaron Johnson) living with his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle George (David Threlfall), who have brought him up in lower-middle-class security since his mother effectively abandoned him at the age of four.

However, the kind-but-strict couple’s efforts to give him a respectable start in life are fated to unravel. When George suddenly dies, Lennon discovers that his real mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), lives close by with her husband (David Morrisey) and kids. Julia, closer to John’s age than aunt Mimi and very different in character, introduces her estranged son to the nascent delights of rock ‘n’ roll (perhaps stretching conventional mother/ son boundaries by pointing out sexual references in the lyrics) and buys him his first guitar, setting him on a path to musical legend via the formation of the Quarrymen (as well as, later, an even more famous band)…

Network Premiere. Originally made in 2009.