The story takes place in 1980s Britain, where young Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is raised in isolation among The Brethren, a puritanical religious sect in which music and TV are strictly forbidden. When Will encounters his first movie, a pirated copy of Rambo: First Blood his imagination is blown wide open. Now, Will sets out to join forces with the seemingly diabolical school bully, Lee Carter (Will Poulter), to make their own action epic, devising wildly creative, on-the-fly stunts, not to mention equally elaborate schemes for creating a movie of total commitment and non-stop thrills while hiding out from The Brethren, with Will playing the Son of Rambow.

When school popularity finally descends on Will and Lee in the form of, oui, the super-cool French exchange student, Didier Revol, their remarkable new friendship and precious film are pushed, quite literally, to breaking point.

Filmed in a creatively mad-cap, homemade style with a mostly amateur cast and a wry, comic-tinged nostalgia, creative visionaries Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith, a.k.a Hammer & Tongs (Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy), manage to capture both the agony and the giddy ecstasy of a camcorder childhood with humour, poignancy and a rousing dose of cinematic panache.

This coming-of-age comedy has all the elements of a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.

*Son Of Rambow (12A) is currently showing at Aylesbury Odeon.