When the movie `Billy Elliot', written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry, hit the cinemas in the year 2000, both the critics and the audiences where somewhat taken aback. It became an instant success, defying the customs of the day by not having star names or a big Hollywood blockbuster director in its credit lines. A simple story, about a young talented boy growing up in the English north, during the 1984 miners strike against Margaret Thatcher's conservative government, wanting to pursue his dream of becoming a ballet dancer and thusly going against everything his own establishment and surroundings stood for (beautifully summarised in a phrase used in both the movie and the musical: `ballet is for poofs'), seemed to deliver the message and hit the critics and the cinemagoers alike. Apart from these accolades the movie got several BEFTA and Academy Award nominations.