First they release Bird Of Prey, now this!

This will mean nothing to most of you, but every few months, I type 'Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire' into the search box on Amazon or Play.com. I do this (albeit in the vain hope that this obscure, flawed but deeply brilliant musical about a snooker-playing vampire and the cocky young upstart who challenges him. It's directed by Alan Clarke (who also directed Scum, Made in Britain and a number of gritty BBC dramas) and while it's totally unlike anything else he's ever done, the class war aspect of the snooker match is right up his street. Music is by George Fenton, at the time better known for the themes to Shoestring and Bergerac, but now a prolific film composer who also did the music for The Blue Planet BBC series.

Cast wise, it's got Phil Daniels (yes, for you youngsters, he did have a career before doing the vocals on Parklife and appearing in Eastenders), British character actor Alun Armstrong, a brief role by Danny Webb (who played head of security Mr Jefferson in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit) and a very early appearance (albeit IIRC in the chorus) by Caroline Quentin.

It's very weird indeed, and I can't claim it all meshes together perfectly, but there are moments of genius, and I've wanted to see it again for a very long time. Which is a bit of an issue since, to the best of my knowledge, it's been shown once (originally) on Channel Four, once on Film Four, and once at an Alan Clarke retrospective at the NFT. It's more or less impossible to get hold of, even via the download over the great Interweb.

I just went to Play.com and did my usual search. This came up. I've bought it.

Yes, I'm excited enough about this to make my first post in about three months. *Squeeee!*