The jewel in Danny Boyle's crown

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2009)

Or rather eight jewels, one for every glittering Oscar Slumdog effortlessly collected at the 2009 Academy Awards. And as befits such an energised director, Boyle bounced up and down with sheer delight on collecting the hardware for Best Director. As he'd promised his kids, "if this miracle ever happened, I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger".
Bouncing alongside him (at least metaphorically) was a relieved British film industry who'd possibly never imagined in their wildest dreams that this transparently un-commercial little number, with a budget of $15m, would ever make it out of the pit-stops of minority-interest cinema - even packing out final performances on Sunday evenings; unheard of! And which would, of course, be forgetting how escapist entertainment always cleans up during recessions (especially rags-to-riches fairy tales like these), and how a steady stream of Bollywood films and Bollywood-flavoured cinema over the past decade has proved popular in multicultural Britain, paving the way for Slumdog's success. If Boyle never makes another film, his elevated status in contemporary British film-making will remain as set as concrete.