Here she is - a female Walter Mitty for the 21st century.

Relatively unknown actress Eileen Walsh stakes a claim for stardom in the title role of this punchy new British comedy.

Don't be put off by its less-than-snappy name - Janice Beard 45 wpm has enough sass and class about it to restore your faith in the UK film industry.

Walsh plays a dreamer who leaves behind her home in Scotland for the bright lights of London armed with little more than a shorthand qualification - hence the film's cumbersome title.

Her aim is to earn enough money working as a temp to pay for treatment for her mum's agoraphobia.

She also has an unfortunate tendency to invent fanciful stories about herself to make her life sound more interesting.

Inevitably things are not as straightforward as Janice imagines and she finds herself working for a car firm which is about to unveil a top secret new model and embroiled in a battle of wits over a plot by a rival company to wreck the launch.

There's a wonderful freshness and inventiveness about Janice Beard 45wpm from the very opening scene - even her birth has a darkly comic surprise up its sleeve within the film's first few seconds.

Much of the credit for this must go to director Clare Kilner, who cut her teeth working on EastEnders and breathes an invigorating mixture of realism and originality into the film compared to the glossy, airbrushed depiction of life you are often presented with by Hollywood.

Walsh is someone you might slightly patronisingly refer to as "bonny" - Janice describes herself as ugly in the film and she is clearly intended to contrast with Patsy Kensit's superficially glamorous typing pool boss Julia.

But it's a delight to see someone who's not an obvious glamour figure taking the starring role and making the character so compelling.

Janice Beard 45wpm is very much a female bonding film, moving as well as funny. Janice's touching relationship with her mum - she sends her videos of her life in London, fooling her into thinking she lives in a luxury pad by taking her camcorder to a posh kitchen showroom - is central.

Sandra Voe's portrayal of mum Mimi, finally transformed from a woman trapped by her mental frailty in her own home, is a triumph and the delicate balance within the typing pool and Janice's up-and-down friendship with Violet (Frances Grey) form the core of much of the drama.

There is love interest too - hence the appearance of Rhys Ifans (the flatmate in his underpants in Notting Hill) as a post boy who is not quite what he seems - but his duplicitous role in the scheming over the car launch adds another soupcon of delicious irony rather than a soppy romantic sub-plot as film-makers are often tempted to do.

Unless this becomes a surprise hit, Janice Beard 45wpm is likely to be submerged shortly by the blockbuster summer releases, so catch it while you can.

Simon Ashberry

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.