IT CAN'T GO EURABIC FAST ENOUGH:

The 20 best films for children: plus clips: As the Government launches a new scheme to bring the joys of cinema to young people in schools, Times critics' present their guide to the best movies for kids (Sarah Vine and Times critics, 6/13/08, Times of London)

Beautiful Thing

(Hettie Macdonald, 1996)

Suitable for mature teenagers. Contains swearing.

As “gay” is now a term of abuse in the classroom and on the bus, and as gays are all over primetime, this film may just educate as well as enchant. Hettie Macdonald's fizzing adaptation of Jonathan Harvey's hit play follows two teenage boys falling for each other on a South London council estate one hot summer. Funny and tender, rude and moving, Beautiful Thing is not porny, it's not graphic and it's not preachy. The language - as one boy's mother discovers the truth - is occasionally blue, but Ste and Jamie are not stereotypes and, little by little, they are not ashamed, either. TT