Bloody Kids is a British television film written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Stephen Frears, made by Black Lion Films for ATV, and first shown on ITV on 22 March 1980.

Filmed in south east Essex, with locations in Southend-on-Sea, Westcliff, Leigh-on-Sea and Canvey Island, the opening five minutes are of the bridge down to Leigh-on-Sea's cockle sheds, with a lorry hanging over.
Furtherwick Park School Canvey Island, was used for the school scenes, and Southend United's ground, Roots Hall, was used for the stabbing scenes.
Disco scenes in Southend are notable for an early television appearance of Mel Smith playing the bouncer. Victoria Circus, Southend seafront and hospital are all used as locations, culminating in a climactic scene outside the Casino, Canvey Island, on a London double decker bus.

Bloody Kids is an intriguing collaboration between Stephen Poliakoff and Stephen Frears. It is a hallucinatory story set over a few days where we see the late 1970s youth culture in the last moments of punk, viewed through the steely gaze of two eleven-year-old boys. It begins with a dark practical joke on the adult world, which goes terribly wrong.
The film was originally made for television but shot on 35mm film. After it was shown on the main ITV network where it drew 15 million viewers it was later given an art-house cinema release by the BFI and was selected for the New York Film Festival. The film was brilliantly shot by the legendary British director of photography, Chris Menges and features a particularly powerful soundtrack composed by George Fenton.
The two young leads had both never acted before and there are early appearances by Mel Smith, Gwyneth Strong and Gary Holton who was to achieve fame in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the 1980s.
The film is one of the most vivid examples of Poliakoff’s urban work, set in a landscape of shopping malls and motorways, settings which dominated many of his theatre plays.

Richard Beckinsale was originally cast to play Detective Ritchie in this film. Tragically, he died during filming. His character was re-cast and the scenes re-shot, although he can still be occasionally glimpsed in long-shot according to director Stephen Frears.

Two young boys enact a mock fight outside a football ground as a joke, but it goes wrong when one of them is injured. While the victim recovers in hospital, the other boy attempts to hide from the police.

The slender premise springs from the actions of two listless 11-year-old boys, the cold, manipulative Leo, and his weaker, more impressionable friend, Mike. Contemptuous of the fallible police force (Mike has already filched a police hat from an accident scene), the boys arrange a staged knife fight outside a football stadium with the aid of a bag of stage blood and a real blade.

IMDb Review:
Poliakoff (writer) and Frears (director) both have a fascination for the darker corners of urban life that most of us never see. Bloody Kids is early work for both of these great masters and has the rough edges one might expect from youthful experimentation. But this piece demonstrates the pace, momentum and lyrical qualities that Poliakoff can create and amazing visual imagery by Frears. Some of the work is reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange, but this piece has a quite unique presence of its own which I found both haunting and gripping.
Not the greatest work by either Stephen, but early signs of greatness and certainly worth a look.

Gritty drama about youngsters cast adrift from society, written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Stephen Frears. Leo (Richard Thomas) and Mike (Derrick O'Connor) are two socially alienated boys who go on a reckless Saturday night spree in their home town of Southend, Essex. Drinking, picking up girls and vandalism soon escalate into more serious and violent crimes as the boys begin to lose control of the consequences of their actions.

Special Features:

RARE Region 2 DVD in 'Like New' Condition

All photos of the item plus any DVD menus are of the actual item for sale.
Please note: the trailer is included for illustrative purposes only - it is much poorer quality than the DVD. Most of the photos are screengrabs from the DVD

Please see my other items - save on postage when buying more than one item. To do this add the items you want to your basket before paying. If it doesn't give the postage discount for any reason, let me know and I will arrange a refund for any excess postage paid for items ordered together.

International Customers - if you wish to purchase more than one item, please send me a message so I can ensure the best postage discount.