Presented here in a newly restored print from the BFI, Anderson’s feature film centres on down-and-out coal miner Frank Machin (masterfully portrayed by a young Richard Harris) and his rise to rugby league glory. These attentions are no substitute, however, for the love he futilely seeks from his landlady, a recent widow who at times can barely muster the respect to look him in the eye. The duality of Machin’s fame on the field and failure in love frames this dramatic and poignant expression of the personal conflicts that so often accompany sporting success.