Out Of Control


Allan Hunter in Edinburgh 22 August 2002



Director: Dominic Savage. UK. 2002. 90 mins

An angry, nihilistic drama told with gut-renching conviction, Out Of Control confirms writer-director Dominic Savage as the standard bearer for the raw, social realist traditions established and refined by Ken Loach and the late Alan Clarke. A largely improvised story intended for transmission on UK TV station BBC1 next month, the film completes a trilogy of dramas by Savage portraying the wasted lives and bleak futures facing a generation of young Britons. An intensely emotional piece that would prove a tough commercial sell, it still deserves wider exposure than a single television broadcast, even if that comes from extensive festival appearances rather than theatrical sales.

A former actor and documentary filmmaker, Savage received a BAFTA for Best New Director for Nice Girl (2000) and a further BAFTA for Best Single Drama for When I Was 12 (2001). Originally entitled The Young Offenders, Out Of Control focuses on the tragic tale of Dean (Young), a sensitive 15-year-old who lives on a south London housing estate with his mother (Outhwaite). She is determined to keep him out of trouble and away from the temptations of drink, delinquency and drugs that have scarred the lives of his contemporaries.

The boy loves his mother and respects what she is trying to do but is easily led by peer pressure. When his best friend Charlie (Webb) returns from his latest spell of incarceration, they are soon riding the streets in a stolen car. It is Dean who is caught and sentenced to two months in a young offenders institute where his life is made a living hell at the hands of sadistic bully Sam (Gregory).

Carrying strong echoes of influential 1970s productions like Stephen Frears Bloody Kids (1979) and Alan Clarke’s Scum (1979), Out Of Control paints a powerful vision of youngsters who have rejected the values of a society that has nothing to offer them and no way to reach them. Danny is established as a bright, decent lad who could flourish in the right circumstances, but even he cannot escape the lure of the streets. Prison officer Mike (Morrisey) is a caring, compassionate member of the establishment who does what he can to help - but still cannot protect a boy like Danny from his fate.

Given added urgency by the use of restless, handheld camerawork and the improvised dialogue, Out Of Control occasionally threatens to let its edgy aesthetic dominate the emotional content of the storyline. But Savage proves to be a shrewd judge of the material and secures heartbreaking performances from an impressive cast of newcomers and established actors.

Danny Young is entirely believable as the baby-faced teenager singled out as a victim, and Leo Gregory brings a lacerating, De Niro-like conviction to the psychotic bully Sam. Meanwhile Tamzin Outhwaite’s gutsy performance as the loving, care-ravaged mother should allow her to take further strides forward from any pejorative associations with her former status as TV soap star.

Prod co/int’l sales: BBC Films
Prod: Ruth Caleb
Exec prod: David Thompson
Scr: Savage
Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd
Prod des: Tom Bowyer
Ed: David G Hill
Main cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, David Morrisey, Jamie Foreman, Frank Harper, Danny Young, Leo Gregory, Bronson Webb, Akemnji Ndifornyan

Out of Control Sunday 15 September 21.25-22.25, BBC ONE. Dominic Savage's third film won the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh Festival. Part of the Cracking Crime Day, it is BBC ONE's first wholly improvised drama and focuses on the lives of three teenagers sent to a young offenders' institution. Four relative newcomers star opposite the more familiar faces of Tamzin Outhwaite (EastEnders) and David Morrissey (Clocking Off). Tamzin plays the mother of sensitive and intelligent Dean. They live on a rough housing estate and she's doing everything she can to stop her son going off the rails. When Dean's friend, Charlie-boy, is released from prison, the teenagers are soon up to no good and Dean is arrested for being in a stolen car. David Morrissey plays prison warder, Mike, who takes Dean under his wing. Despite his protection, Dean is bullied by vicious robber, Sam. Dominic Savage carried out several months of research in the toughest estates and young offenders institutions across the UK. He says: "When you go into these institutions, there are those who need to be aggressive from the off, otherwise they become victims themselves. And there are those, some of whom are as young as 15, who are extremely vulnerable to them. Out of Control is about the criminal mentality, it's about what's going on inside their heads." Tamzin Outhwaite left Albert Square far behind her for what she described as one of the most disturbing and emotional projects she's ever been involved with. She said: "It's about what's really going on for teenagers and it's about a mother's struggle to ensure her children know right from wrong. She's trying to convince Dean that working at school and getting his head down is going to be the best option, rather than going out, thieving and smoking weed." Having spent weeks researching the role of Mike, David Morrissey is convinced that it's not the life for him, despite being full of admiration for the officers he shadowed. He said: "Not only do they have to deal with the boys but they also have to deal with the pressure of bureaucracy coming down on them all the time, not to mention the hours they have to work, the conditions they work under, the overcrowding and the constant pressure of being attacked." Ruth Caleb, the producer of Out of Control, is full of admiration for the youngsters who play the young offenders. "The lads are fantastic. Each of them equally holds their own. Akemnji Ndifornyan (Danny) possesses great composure and sweetness which comes through on screen. Danny Young (Dean) manages to bring great vulnerability to his role. It is a challenging role and he performs it with considerable maturity. Leo Gregory gives a performance alive with raw emotion as Sam."   The cast also includes: Bronson Webb (The Bill, Harry and Cosh, Hope and Glory) as Charlie-boy Jamie Foreman (Without Motive, films Elizabeth and Sleepy Hollow) as Jim Frank Harper (Second Sight, Other People's Children)