First things first: Somers Town should not be seen as Shane Meadows' next film after This is England even though on paper it is, and it has certain traits that make it stand out as a Shane Meadows movie.

As in This is England the lead is taken by Thomas Turgoose who plays a Nottingham mixed-up kid who coming from a broken home and a dispiriting childhood, decides to take off for London hoping it's the promised land.

Turgoose plays another artful dodger type, a youngster with an optimistic edge who like a gutsy boxer will get up and fight no matter what bad cards are dealt to him.

Soon after getting mugged, he bumps into a shy Polish boy who has recently moved to London called Marek who lives with his father who is working all hours to put a roof over their heads. The two boys hit it off in a chalk-and-cheese kind of a way, it's a case of finding companionship even though they come from different sides of the tracks.

Marek shows his new friend, a young girl who works locally and naturally his cheeky friend then decides he likes her too. The youngsters are likeable and provide genuine moments of tenderness that are the highlights of this feelgood piece of urban realism.

What is most surprising about Somers Town is that it's only 71 minutes long and its to the detriment of the film that it ends just when you thinking it's getting going. You think it's building up to a satisfying ending, but then the credits mysteriously roll.

That however might have had something to do with the background of the film. The film was initially conjured up as short film to promote Eurostar leaving for Europe out of St Pancras. Meadows was supplied with a pot of money by Eurostar and asked to come up with something. Considering they were expecting a short, Meadows has done wonders to come up with a short feature film. Of course, some of the drama is played out on a Eurostar train with some lines about Eurostar train travel, but in terms of product placement, it's fairly subtle and Eurostar insist that Meadows had full editorial control.

Overall Somers Town is fine as far as it goes, it contains some of the Meadows magic and Turgoose leads a promising and unknown cast in a topical film for today given it's about a kid running away from home and Polish immigrants after a better life in Britain, but it's a shame that the plot seeps away rather than coming to a memorably gutsy conclusion in a way that previous Shane Meadows' films have.