THE CREDITS reveal that we’ve already paid twice for writer-director Guy Myhill’s debut feature, since The Goob was funded with public money via the BBC and the British Film Institute, which allocate lottery funds.

So, what do we get for our money?

On the credit side, attractive Norfolk locations beautifully photographed by Simon Tindall add valuable depth to this coming-of-age drama.

But Myhill’s film, patently well-intentioned and well-made, is riddled with dramatic and character cliches which ultimately add little new to an already overworked genre.

Even so, Norfolk-born Liam Walpole, making his acting debut, is surprisingly effective as “Goob,” bringing the character to credible life in the face of overfamiliar screenplay concepts.

He has spent 16 summers working in Norfolk pumpkin fields and helping his single mother Janet (Sienna Guillory) run her roadside diner.

Then the unpleasant stock-car racer Womack (Sean Harris) takes up with Janet, gives Goob a hard time and alienates him from his mother. The teenager’s forced into adulthood, catalysed by his corny romance with an “exotic” fellow pumpkin picker.

Result? A well-made, visually attractive but overfamiliar story which at times resembles a film-school project. 

Its natural home is really the small screen.