Controversially denied widespread distribution during its initial theatrical release in 1967, the classic British comedy-drama Charlie Bubbles comes to DVD this September. Written by Shelagh Delaney (Dance With A Stranger), the BAFTA Award winning writer of A Taste Of Honey, and starring and directed by Albert Finney, Charlie Bubbles co-stars Billie Whitelaw (Hot Fuzz; Quills), who won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, and Oscar winner Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) in her debut movie role (her uncredited appearance as a baby in 1949's In The Good Old Summertime notwithstanding).

Finney stars as the film's eponymous hero, a Northern, working-class lad made good, whose privileged life as a successful author living in London has left him bored and disillusioned. After spending a day on the booze in the West End with his best friend Smokey Pickles (Colin Blakely), Charlie takes to his Rolls Royce and, with his secretary Eliza (Minnelli) in tow, heads towards his native Manchester and neighbouring Derbyshire to pay a visit to his estranged wife (Whitelaw) and their young son, who he has promised to take to see Manchester United play against Chelsea. The visits to the haunts of his youth and to the football match prove to be as unfulfilling as his life in London, likewise a brief sexual encounter in a Manchester hotel with Eliza, and it's not long before Charlie accepts the futility of trying to re-establish himself with his past.

In many ways paralleling the writer/star's own Salford upbringing, his reputation for hard-living and his rapid rise to fame during the 1960s, Charlie Bubbles has Albert Finney on shining form, both as a more-than-competent director and at his charismatic best as an actor in a film that brilliantly portrays the contrasts of Britain's socio-economic North-South divide during the 1960s.

Charlie Bubbles (cert. PG) will be released on UK DVD by Fremantle Home Entertainment on 15th September 2008 at the RRP of £7.99. No extras have been listed.