This movie is very much of its time, and very British, so some subtleties might be lost on foreigners (as me). A few things may seem dated or naive now, but in 1977 they must have been quite relevant. Just take a newspaper from that time and it looked as if punk might bring down the establishment single-handedly. The amateurish aspects of the movie go well with the punk aesthetic, and the performances of the more trained actors make up for the others. Jordan was quite a revelation if you think she was in charge of a clothes shop and had no acting experience apart from being on stage with the Sex Pistols. The character of Borgia Ginz is quite amusing. Jenny Runacre is in my opinion excellent all along (she plays two roles). The acting and dialog in the final scene, when she talks with Dee as Queen Elizabeth I and set to Brian Eno's music, is really nice. What I find puzzling about this is, why would a punk movie portray royalty in such a likable way ? Maybe the message is, "we're not against royalty per se, we're against the way royalty is and behaves today". But this is just my guess.

Not a commercial film, much more interesting than that. Raw, eccentric. It doesn't look like a lot of money was spent on it, but that a lot of genuinely creative collaboration was. Some moments are visually striking or disturbing - characters occupying a decaying urban world, with sex, rage and an emphasis on female-generated violence.As a record of a particular time and place (underground Britain, mid seventies), it's fascinating. As a picture of the British punk scene at the time, I understand it's problematic (some of the leads had no connection to the punk scene at all), but I'm not British, so my understanding of that part of it is thin at best.I came away with an impression of Derek Jarman's sensibility. It seemed deeply pessimistic and surprisingly traditional-minded, despite all the way-out, on-the-edge characters. I was impressed by The Last of England some years ago, and he seemed to be circling the same ground from the start, if this older film is anything to go by.

If you can see ball gowns and bovver boots picking their way over rubble beside the Thames set to a classical music score, you're probably watching a Derek Jarman picture.England's first punk film was mostly shot around Butlers Wharf and Shad Thames in Southwark, south-east London; in the late 1970s a hive of mouldering warehouses and docks - ideal for the director's vision of a run-down capital besieged by murderous punks. (Two decades later, in the same spot, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth would inflict less lasting damage on one another in Bridget Jones's Diary.) A preposterous film in many ways, and particularly memorable for punk icon Jordan's burlesque strut to a reggae-fied 'Rule Britannia' while wearing a Union Flag skirt. The Spice Girls didn't know they were born. (Although, in all fairness, Baby Spice did precede the film by a year.)

One of the most important functions I perform - in my many and varied Official Roles - is that of 'censor'. Since my ordination as a Reverend in the Universal Life Church Monastery, my father has requested that I act as a 'moral guardian' within his home village.Two weeks ago, I was back at village for housekeeping purposes – to be specific, I was conducting an annual laundry service for the Robes of Disenchantment. The toadstools were sliced, the Robes were then washed and then rubbed with Powder of Significance. As the garments were hung to dry in the funeral parlour (the contents of which were turned out in the street to make room) I was handed a canister with a label – 'Jubilee'A letter posted a week later instructed me to view the contents of the canister – a reel of celluloid – and ascertain its worthiness for screening in the village at the next Moonjump Festival. The Nigerian Film Classification Board were unavailable due to it being their customary Extended Period Beneath Ground Level, so this responsibility was to fall on my shoulders.The screen flickered to life – A man ran across a rooftop chased by another man. The first man gets away and the other nearly dies when he jumps and clings to a guttering. This man is in Throes of Gobbled Liver for the rest of the film – we never see the man he was chasing again – a most frustrating plot development. But instead we follow This Second Man! In Swoon from the Orbit of the Rocks, he attempts to fornicate with a local townswoman, causing her to commit suicide. Then he finds another townswoman, makes her speak, dress and act like the first! This time-wasting device, not to mention the Immoral Content left me with no choice but to invoke the Spirit of Gerald and immediately cease the viewing!!'Jubilee' was thus given a 'Persona Ex Machina' NFCB classification. The reel was placed in the canister and sent for internment to the Port Harcourt Pepper Mine. The village Moonjump was spared moral erosion and instead shown highlights from circus shows, including 'Pepe, Derek-Pierre and the Stunt Gorillas'