Originally written for the BBC's Play for Today series, this stark, bruising drama from Roy Minton about conditions inside a juvenile detention centre was banned by the BBC in 1978. Having published a novelisation of the play, Minton persuaded director Alan Clarke to make a cinema version on a shoestring budget the following year. Beefing up the incidents that had informed dozens of Hollywood prison pictures, Minton presents an uncompromising picture of borstal life, made all the more shocking by Clarke's docudramatic approach - the scenes of sexual and physical violence still have the power to revolt and arouse anger.

Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of terror and neglect, with Carlin emerging as an unlikely leader.