There aren't many films that bring a tear to this cynical old eye, and I thought I'd sail through this little drama and remain dry. But a son saying "Thanks" is enough to start the waterworks, it seems. And I didn't feel manipulated; that tear was not squeezed out of me by foul means. That tear was gladly given and well earned. I cannot say how true to life this film is, although I do no doubt this goes on. Nevertheless, the drama was enough to open my eyes - bloodshot with crying though they might have been.

I was set a challenge by a so called friend to find the bleakest film ever made. Will our friendship survive this torture? Well I've found it .... The bleakest film of all time. County Lines 2019 BBCIPlayer . It probably hits a nerve because those are the kids and families that I've been living within my neighbourhood and I've watched due to lack of funding and government drive with ever decreasing levels of success over the years spiral further down into poverty .

Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

County Lines is the term used for drug runners working in other cities or rural areas away from their own home patch, principally because they have no police record in that area and because they are young kids. Great acting from all the cast, all unknowns apart from one lad who is now in Eastenders. It's a simple but very real story, 9/10 (thinking about it THE ROAD is the bleakest movie if all time)

This is grim, as it should be given this is a very real and common place scenario these days. The casting and acting is great, all the main parts ring true. My main problem with is the somewhat happy ending, as this is not how I think most of these situations pan out. It also didn't feel believable that his Mum suddenly becomes Mrs Doubtfire after not bothering to ask where the money has come from for the last 6 months while he was wagging school. I know the gravity of what happened might have shocked her into action, but still, I didn't buy that a Mum that neglected him so badly in that time and must have surely known where the money was coming from, could change so much. Maybe I'm just cynical.