Sophie Gee

And there's a moment where Mr Farthing actually asks Billy, how did you get interested in kestrels and where did you get the kestrel from?

The answer is from a nearby farmer who had a nest somewhere

high up on an old wall.

But we learned from Billy that this is not the first animal that he has had a relationship with.

He had a relationship with a fox when he was a little boy.

He's trained magpies.

He's a bit of a Gerald Durrell, actually.

He's kind of a naturalist.

He loves an animal.

He loves a bird.

So although this is his greatest triumph and the bird that he's had the deepest relationship with, we can see, even just from his observation of the robin,

that he's very attentive to the natural world and that he kind of gets in there and gets to know the animals.

And so that suggests that going forward, this is not going to be the last time that Billy has a wonderful relationship with nature.

Well, all of those things are totally true.

And yeah, I thought it was just an absolutely beautiful film.

I read the book and then immediately watched the film.

So I was very aware of the extent to which the dialogue in the film is taken straight from the book, which actually gives the film this almost documentary-like quality, as though somehow it is using language, using words that have been spoken by real people, even though we're aware that

the characters of the film have been made up.

It's quite a quiet film.

It's not a showy film.