To BFI Southbank this week for a rare screening of Nighthawks, Ron Peck’s 1978 film about a London geography teacher, Jim (Ken Robertson), and his repetitive and frustrating life: drab days at work, the odd evening out with a colleague, nights spent silently scouring gay clubs and bars until he finds someone new with whom he can strike up the same conversation he had the last time he was there.
He’s looking for love but it doesn’t want to be found. He is a nondescript, soft-faced fellow, a miniature Robert Powell and, it must be said, extraordinarily unlucky. A couple of pick-ups see him for more than one date. For the most part, though, his encounters lead only to sex or to promises to call which have no intention of being kept.
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