Mat Whitecross, who gathered accolades for his collaboration with Michael Winterbottom on The Road To Guantanamo, moves away from documentary with this cinematic celebration of the life and times of Ian Dury, the controversial punk poet.

A victim of childhood polio, Dury was left permanently disabled for the rest of his life. His irreverence towards his disability was legendary and certainly never held Dury back as he rose to fame during the 1970s as a founder of punk and New Wave. With his razor blade earring and powerful stage persona, he was a trailblazer that many would follow. By focusing on Dury’s life as a father and husband as well as a legend, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is an unflinching portrait of one of the most difficult, but truly original, figures of the English music scene from the last 40 years.

A DCA favourite, Bill Milner (Son of Rambow, Is Anybody There?), is as solid as ever as Dury’s young son Baxter, and their relationship provides some of the most tender and moving moments in the film. The undeniable star here though is Andy Serkis, finally stepping out of the shadow of his performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Electrifying as Dury, this is no ordinary impersonation (Serkis does all his own singing); he manages to embody the essence of a complicated man who changed the face of rock and roll forever.