The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

A working-class teenager in Nottingham, Colin Smith, is sent to a reformatory school after robbing a bakery. Inside the institution, he discovers he is a gifted long-distance runner, and his performances draw the attention of the governor, who sees the boy's athletic success as proof that his methods work. The governor hopes Colin will win an upcoming five-mile race, while the other inmates mock him as a favourite of the authorities. Colin's solitary training runs become a space to reflect on his past and on the life that brought him there.

Tony Richardson directed the film, his third feature after The Entertainer, and also produced it through Woodfall Film Productions. Alan Sillitoe wrote the screenplay, adapting his own story. Tom Courtenay plays Colin, with Michael Redgrave as the reformatory governor, alongside Avis Bunnage, Alec McCowen, James Bolam and Joe Robinson in a credited cast of forty-four.

The British drama runs 104 minutes and was released in September 1962. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.5 from around 10,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7.2 from roughly 175 votes, so the two audiences are broadly in agreement.