purely belter

Director: mark herman

Actor: chris beattie,greg mclane,charlie hardwick,roy hudd

Data Published: Fri Nov 03 2000

Genres: Comedy,Drama

Key Words: shoplifting,newcastle,football,dog,courtroom

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246875/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purely_Belter

Description: Purely Belter is a movie starring Chris Beattie, Greg McLane, and Charlie Hardwick. Two teenage boys will do anything to get money to buy season tickets for their local team.

Plot: The events take place over a year, the film being divided into four sections named after the four seasons. Sewell and Gerry, football-mad teenagers from broken families in Gateshead, break into Newcastle United's St James' Park stadium and steal the "sacred" turf from the penalty spot. After this success, they dream of earning money to get season tickets, with aid from their guardian angel, the Angel of the North. For the two tickets they plan to buy, they will need nearly a thousand pounds. After attempts to make money from collecting scrap and baby sitting, they eventually graduate to more criminal activities, including shoplifting and housebreaking. Gerry keeps the money they accumulate in a tin box at home. Sewell, who lives with his permanently befuddled grandfather (Roy Hudd), adopts a dog who follows him after wandering away from his owner, a local thug. He also dreams of Gemma, a girl who is engaged to Zak, a muscular ice-hockey player for the "Whitley Bay Warriors". At home, Gerry lives with his sickly mother (Charlie Hardwick) and his sister Clare (Tracy Whitwell) who has a baby called "Sheara". They are separated from their violent father Billy (Tim Healy) who has been sexually abusing Gerry's other sister Bridget, who has run away from home. When Billy finds where they live and badly beats Gerry's mother, the family have to move to a secret location. Gerry is bribed by a social worker to attend school for two weeks after which he will get two free football tickets. At the school he is bullied by his teacher (Kevin Whately). Gerry and Sewell attempt to rob his house in revenge, but are nearly caught. When Gerry gets the tickets he is horrified to discover that they are for a Sunderland match. After failing to sell them, the two friends watch the match at the Stadium of Light. Billy finds the family's new flat and steals all the money Gerry has accumulated. At an empty fairground, Gerry spots his sister Bridget (Kerry Ann Christiansen), who is now a drug addict sleeping rough, but she disappears when he leaves to get some food. After Gemma breaks up with Zak the ice-hockey player, she becomes Sewell's girlfriend. The lads' shoplifting is shown on the TV show Crimestoppers. The thug who originally owned the dog sees the show and spots the animal with Sewell. He finds and attacks him. The seemingly weak and mild-mannered Sewell floors him with a single blow on the neck. At the Newcastle United Training ground at the Riverside pavilion (Chester-le-street), they briefly meet Alan Shearer and ask him to give them season tickets, but he just laughs. They steal a sports car, which turns out to be Shearer's. Looking at his CDs, Sewell is appalled by his musical tastes - (Gabrielle and Celine Dion). Eventually they leave the car and go skinny dipping. Sewell is delighted when Gemma reveals she is pregnant, but horrified when she goes back to her former fiancé. Sewell attacks him during an ice-hockey match and knocks him out, but is beaten up by his team mates. Gerry's mother becomes ill and is hospitalised. Gerry finds Billy, who ignores his pleas for support. Having lost all their earnings, Sewell and Gerry decide on one last major crime - a bank robbery. The crime goes disastrously wrong and the lads end up under arrest. However, Gerry learns that Billy has been killed in a road accident. The friends are sentenced to 200 hours of community service. One old lady they work for allows them to watch Newcastle play from the balcony of her towerblock, which overlooks the stadium.