FilmFour, the production house that popularised dodgy working class suburbs, Bedford vans, Iggy Pop, smashing teeth, and proving that frostbite is the least of your worries in Edinburgh, is to close its doors.

Channel Four and FourFilm have been at the forefront of original British cinema since LOCAL HERO (1983) THE COMPANY OF WOLVES (1984), and the hugely significant MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE, directed by Stephen Frears in 1985.

In addition to championing great films, FilmFour also launched the careers of filmmakers like Danny Boyle, and great British actors like Ewan McGregor, Hugh Grant (well? he is British) and Robert Carlyle, among others.

Andrew's obsession with cult films began at midnight at the age of ten, and involved a bowl of popcorn, an old television set and John Carpenter's Halloween. Little has changed since then, besides age, the popcorn and the fact that he can now climb dark stairwells after a horror movie by himself. Andrew is a published writer of horror fiction, a screenwriter and a freelance journalist. His time is spent largely in pursuit of a truly original horror film. Failing that he has threatened to make his own.

If you didn?t get round to seeing TRAINSPOTTING, it?s likely you managed to miss the 90?s altogether (you probably have your reasons).

Combining irrepressible British wit, a blistering storyline and razor-wicked dialogue, Boyle?s TRAINSPOTTING is less a film than a film experience and in an hour and a half, will tell you more about working class Britain than a thousand episodes of CORONATION STREET or EASTENDERS.

For the uninitiated TRAINSPOTTING imaginatively documents the lives of a group of Scottish youngsters; most of them heroin addicts, and all on the make.

Unlike other films the characters are not presented as innocent victims. Indeed the honesty in the film is almost blinding. As protagonist Mark ?Rent Boy? Renton says at the outset ? ?I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin? else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you?ve got heroin??

The fact that Edinburgh forms the backdrop for the drama is inspired. This isn?t the Scotland of tweed, bagpipes and lochs they sell you on shortbread tins. This is the Scotland of crime, drug addiction, under-age sex, overdose and unemployment, (not necessarily in that order). In fact Renton thinks ?it?s shite being Scottish? in the film?s famous ?great outdoors? scene.

Predictably TRAINSPOTTING provoked widespread negative criticism that charged it with glamorising drugs. Like most provocative films, reactions were out of all proportion to the ?threat? in TRAINSPOTTING. The film doesn?t advocate the use of heroin or any other drug. If it advocates anything, it?s choice.

Basically the people who feel that TRAINSPOTTING glorifies drug addiction are also the kind of people who subscribe to the narrow-minded ?gash? theory that watching OZ will entice viewers to commit crime.

TRAINSPOTTING reminds us that heroin is not the only unhealthy addiction in society and underlines the contradictions of condemning hard drugs whilst drowning in alcohol, choking on cigarettes, and slamming beer glasses into unsuspecting faces.

The most coherent ideologies throughout the experience come from Renton himself. Anti-drug sentiments are represented in the film by Begbie, a knife wielding sociopath and Tommy who, despite his ?lust for life?, falls prey to heroin and fails to survive the drug experience, unlike so-called ?junkies? like Renton, Sick Boy and Spud.

Tommy?s initial anti-drug stance is made all the more ironic by his worship of Iggy Pop, a man who has taken enough drugs in his lifetime to down a herd of elephants. And Begbie? Well Begbie is a law unto himself; vicious, hateful, contradictory and bigoted.

The world of Renton and his mates is soiled, corrupt and debased. It?s a world of distant European football victories, dole cheques, dead-end dreams and that ever-elusive next hit. Renton and Co initially refuse to aspire to two bedroom houses, washing machines and 2.4 children. Inherently they know their choices are as jaded and futile as the world they decry, but hell? for them it at least feels good ? ?Take the best orgasm you?ve ever had and multiply it by a thousand. You?re still nowhere near it?.

Renton is the voice of reason, no more evocatively proven than in the cot death scene when Sick Boy, not knowing what to do, tells Renton to say something, as if it will help. His answer? ?Cooking up?.

Renton, we learn at the end, is a survivor, but beating the drugs means screwing his friends. Again it?s all about choice. Destroy yourself, or those you care about. Not great options, but then that?s the reality of their lives.

Besides the lessons to be drawn here, TRAINSPOTTING is every bit as funny, shocking, poignant and memorable as it was in 1996. Age thankfully has not touched it.

TRAINSPOTTING is poetic, scandalous, revealing, visually inspired, attractively edited, and quite simply beautiful filmmaking.

It leaves you feeling a little sad, a little ashamed, a little wiser, but ultimately triumphant.

If you?ve ever seen Jonas Akerlund?s music video TRY TRY TRY for The Smashing Pumpkins, you?ll know exactly what I?m talking about.

By the way, three things to look out for: 1) Irvine Welsh, who authored the book that inspired the film, puts in a cameo as the dealer who supplies Renton with opium suppositories; 2) The references to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE in the nightclub scene, which has ?Joloko Umphetico? and other slogans on the wall, from the Moloko bar in the Kubrick classic; 3) The paintings in the nightclub of Jodie Foster and Robert de Niro from TAXI DRIVER. There are other popular references. Let?s see which of them you pick up on.

At the end of the day ?significant financial losses? may well have been the reasons cited for the closure of FilmFour, but from where I stand the significant losses run deeper than that.

But as with any funeral I?m beginning to feel a little self conscious standing up here by myself with my little eulogy. So how about it? Send me your favourite memory of any FilmFour production and you could stand in line to win massive respect, a used but colourful coffee mug (washed) and a Noddy badge.

And as if you needed another excuse to revisit the film, just consider that, according to imdb.com, TRAINSPOTTING is the most frequently stolen video from Australian video shops. (Who the hell figures this stuff out?)

*** TRAINSPOTTING is available from all good video outlets, unless of course you live in Australia ? in which case? sorry! Jonas Akerlund?s video can be found on The Smashing Pumpkins? greatest hits on video and DVD.

By the way, if you?ve ever stolen TRAINSPOTTING from a video shop, why not drop me a line and tell me all about it? If you?ve ever stolen copies of WATERWORLD or STEEL MAGNOLIAS from a video shop, please keep your story to yourself.

Feel free to disagree with all of the above and contact me with ideas, suggestions and abuse. I?m open to all three, although I do prefer qualified abuse.

Until Monday?