Big screen stars and TV actors decended on Whitechapel for a cinema screening of their new movie, set in East London.

The likes of Leo Gregory, who starred in the independent drama Green Street about football hooliganism, were among those who came to the private screening of Wild Bill at Genesis cinema on Mile End Road on Friday. The film also stars Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis.

The directorial debut of Dexter Fletcher, best known for his role in Guy Ritchie’s ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, tells the story of Bill who out on parole after eight years inside returns home to find his 11 and 15-year-old sons abandoned by their mother. They are fending for themselves at a Newham council flat in a tower block, which in real life is facing demolition to make way for the 2012 Olympics. Scenes were also set around the nearby construction site for the new Westfield Stratford City.

Unwilling to play Dad, the uncaring Bill is determined to move on. But although Dean, the older boy, has found a job and is doing his best to be a father to his younger brother Jimmy, the arrival of Bill has brought them to the attention of social services. With the danger of being put into care looming, Dean forces his feckless Dad to stay by threatening to grass him up for dealing.

So he reluctantly agrees to stay for a week to help fool social services that the boys are being cared for. Having never really grown up himself Bill quickly connects with Jimmy and through this new bond starts to realize what he’s been missing. But his past threatens to catch up with Bill.

Scenes were also filmed at Rokeby School in Newham.