Dustbin Baby

Dustbin Baby (2008)

The film follows the story of young teen April whose troubled life began in a dustbin - a new born baby, abandoned and alone, not celebrated, not wanted but discarded and left like so much rubbish in an industrial bin behind a pizza parlour. On the morning of her fourteenth birthday April has a devastating row with her foster mother, Marion and leaves the house determined to find out where she really comes from, who she really is and maybe, just maybe, find her real mother. Telling no-one what she's up to or where she's going, April skips school and begins the search she's dreamed about all her life. It's a blur of social workers, children's homes and special schools as April revisits and recalls the key scenes of her fragmented past. It's a painful journey, sometimes frightening but there's also friendship and love and laughter. And now she's started, there's no going back - April must find her mother.

Date of release
2008-12-21
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (7)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Juliet May

Casting

Interesting facts

Dustbin Baby is a BBC television film directed by Juliet May, based on Jacqueline Wilson's 2001 novel of the same name. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 December 2008. The film stars Dakota Blue Richards as April, a troubled teenager who was abandoned in a dustbin as an infant, and Juliet Stevenson as Marion Bean, April's adoptive mother. David Haig stars as Elliot, Marion's friend and colleague. The screenplay was written by Helen Blakeman, and the film was produced by Kindle Entertainment. Dustbin Baby deals with themes including maternal bonding, bullying, and youth crime. The story revolves around April running away on her fourteenth birthday, while Marion searches for her.

Production

The film's screenplay was based on Jacqueline Wilson's 2001 novel Dustbin Baby, and was written by Helen Blakeman, who had previously worked on Pleasureland. Dustbin Baby was co-commissioned by CBBC and BBC One, and was produced by Kindle Entertainment, a production company specialising in children's television. According to The Guardian, the film was billed as "a key part of BBC1's Christmas family line-up".

Though the "gritty realism" of Wilson's novels was different from Dakota Blue Richards's first role as Lyra Belacqua in The Golden Compass, she was happy to take on the character of April. She said she "can really relate to the characters" in Wilson's novels, but found that April was "a really different person" to her. Wilson, who had previously seen Richards in The Golden Compass, was "over the moon to hear she was going to be in Dustbin Baby.

Juliet Stevenson said she was attracted to the part of Marion as "it's very boring playing versions of yourself", and because she did at the time have a 14-year-old daughter. David Haig filmed Dustbin Baby, along with three other television appearances that summer, to earn money to help support his family while he appeared in the play Loot. He described his role as a "snug cameo with a purpose".

The BBC purposefully searched for an actor with Asperger syndrome to play the part of Poppy. Lizzy Clark auditioned for the part after their mother saw an advert on an autism website. Clark was selected to play Poppy, and the role in Dustbin Baby was their first experience of professional acting. Clark was considered the first actress with Asperger syndrome to portray a fictional character with the condition.

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