What a great find off YouTube this was. Adapted by Alan Silitoe from a short story.
Colin Smith (Tom Courtney) has been sent to a Borstal. He's not feeling remorseful for the petty pinching "wrong" he did: "I got caught – I didn't run fast enough".
Turns out he's probably gonna be on the run, running away, all his life. But he seems to like running, is born to run – and he runs fast; "All i know is you've got to run, run without knowing why" We get flashbacks to his "previous" life, all run-of-the-mill working class delinquent stuff: pinching a car with mate Mike (James Bolam); picking up a couple of birds, going off on a joy ride. Dreams of going down to London. A quick snog with the birds. Return car. A couple of mischievous misfits – harmless really.
Back we go to the Remand Centre for naughty boys where Smith can turn himself into a good boy if he wins the Cup for The Governor; only he won't allow himself to be corrupted by a non-working class, institutionalised, poncey, version of being good: "I'm gonna let them think they've got me house-trained. But they never will – the bastards". Another version of Arthur Seaton's "Don't let the bastards grind you down" is Colin Smith.
Flashbacks to back story: Dad dies. With £500 cash pay-out mother is going on a shopping spree, buys a telly. Colin is not impressed. He burns the (blood) money she gives him. Those birds are picked up again, taken to Skeggy, snogged a bit, fallen in love with a bit. He's confessing to his bird Audrey (Topsy Jane) this sad realisation: "I run away to try and get lost. I was always trying to get lost when i was a kid.I soon found out that you can't get lost though".
And then he's done a burglary with Mike and unwisely stuffed the cash up a drainpipe: "Whats the first thing you'd do if you won £75,000 quid? asks Mike" "Count it" comes the droll reply. Yeah, count it, make sure you know how much you've got even if you've got no idea what you'd do with how much you've got. Mike asks, "What do you want to do Col?" "I don't know. Live i suppose. See what happens" says Colin. Hasn't got a clue what to do with his hopeless life has Colin Smith. Except keep running fast, running off, running away.
And running free. Which the Governor has allowed Colin to do: run unsupervised outside the perimeter fence. Trusts him. Cus he's "the Governors blue-eyed boy now" isn't he? No he's not. He's not been "had". He's gonna want to lose that race surely. I was ambivalent watching him run it (which i suppose is what i was meant to be feeling) I wanted him to lose the Cup (for The Governor). But i didn't want him to lose the race (for himself) And in the end he didn't lose. Or did he? Well, he hadn't lost his self-respect.
And he'd won.
At being a loser.
Which is frequently where you can find all your slowed down "thievin little bastards" like Colin Smith.
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