Watching Nowhere Boy at the Watershed had a particular relevance for me as I had recently visited the Beatles museum in Liverpool, which sails through the Fab Four’s later years but takes a close look at how the band formed, where they lived as children, where they went to school, how they met.

Sam Taylor Wood’s film focuses on the early life of John Lennon as he is torn between his old-fashioned aunt, who adopted him when he was five, and his free spirit mother, who we see him getting to know as the film progresses.

Aaron Johnson, now engaged to the director several decades his senior, plays Lennon as a flawed genius, fiercely intelligent yet immature, as much prone to angry confrontations with his peers as brushing them off with a witty one-liner.

Based on the memoirs of Lennon’s sister, it is fascinating to see the early relationships that forged Lennon in his formative years and his departure from unruly schoolboy to trendy art student, while music begins to take a more and more important role in his life.

Beatles fans will enjoy when Lennon, McCartney and Harrison meet for the first time, but it is frustrating that no Beatles songs were able to be included in the film. Perish the thought, however, of a Beatles musical a la We Will Rock You.