So what better to do on a dark, dank Febraury Tuesday night than neck a few hot coffee-cognacs, a beer chaser and a fattie and then head off to the local independent filmhouse to settle down for a coupla hours of bonkers-biopic?

Former pop-vid director, Mat Whitecross's study of Ian Dury's life and times was exactly that. From the opening cacaphony of riotous, carnival-coloured animation to the monochrome flashbacks of a darker, institutionalised childhood via band rehearsals, fractuous relationships and scenes of success, this non-linear account still manages to tell the story from beginning to end.

Those hoping more for a tale of a band on the rise and its subsequent success won't be too disappointed with its incorporation into the story of Ian Dury, the balancing of the two strands largely works.

The characterisation of Dury by Andy Serkis is commendable and strikingly accurate. The performance catches all the raw bluntness and honesty of Dury's persona and wraps it up in utterly believble impression of a man who'd lurch between tyrannical band leader, uncoventional-but-loving father, circus ringleader, sensitive lover and expletive-laden loudmouth who refused to be co-opted.

Personally speaking, and this is no criticism of the film itself, I'd have preferred two hours of documentary archive footage of Ian Dury and The Blockheads performing live shows, but that was never the remit of this very engaging and most enjoyable, if very moving at times, piece of English cinema.