Based on David Nicholls' hit coming-of-age novel, Starter for Ten is the story of Brian (James McAvoy), a working-class lad from an unnamed Essex town who fulfils a lifetime ambition by appearing on University Challenge, while navigating the tricky emotional mire of mid-1980's academia. After arriving in his grubby student digs, Brian wastes no time in falling for the ample-bosomed charms of Alice (Alice Harbinson), one of his team-mates, while, of course, completely ignoring rather more interesting student activist Rebecca (Rebecca Hall).

Those looking for originality and acerbic wit here will be disappointed. Starter for Ten is an extremely British, good natured comedy that rollicks along at a fair pace, without ever attempting to reinvent any wheels. This is no criticism - Tom Vaughan's film does what it wants to do very well, but as soon as the characters are introduced, and the dichotomy between the female leads becomes obvious, you'll have the film sussed, until a neat little twist near the end threatens to derail the entire story.

And while there's little original in the humour, (protagonist has excruciating first experience with drugs, student says wrong name at wrong time, etc) it's so well played that half the audience will end up cringing behind tightly clenched fingers. A tight script from former Cold Feet writer Nicholls injects the kind of just-this-side-of-family-friendly patter we've come to expect from British rom-coms, and, after he's thrown in a couple of life lessons (Don't forget your old friends! Smoking weed makes copulation difficult!) it's difficult to leave the cinema without a warm feeling in the pit of your stomach. Only a slightly underplayed sub plot concerning Brian's working class roots is a slight detraction from an otherwise excellent script, and this may just be down to the fact that British viewers are used to having class divides rammed down our throats than subtly explored on celluloid.

The nostalgia, also, is beautifully handled - both the dreadful student digs and the culminating jaunt onto the brainy television show are lovingly recreated with only the slightest hint of irony - and an uncredited appearance by The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss as host Bamber Gascoigne is priceless, right down to the madcap hair and Granada TV yellow hue.

James McAvoy, too, excels in his first lead role. Soon to inherit Ewan McGregor's mantle as 'responsible, good-looking Scot' in Hollywood by starring alongside Keira Knightley in Joe Wright's Atonement, McAvoy is as gawkishly floppy as his dreadful bowl-cut hairstyle - endearing, sympathetic and vulnerable. How on earth he finds himself fending off two nubile young students is beyond me, however he carries off the romantic lead to aplomb, mixing just enough seriousness and emotion with his awkward first steps in life. He'll have tougher roles than this, but as he's already moving up in the film industry, he won't ever have this much fun again.

Indeed, while all the suspiciously twenty-something looking cast do well with some pretty sparky dialogue, it is Benedict Cumberbatch's prudish team captain Patrick that steals just about every scene he's in, with a wonderfully Machiavellian turn as the frustrated loser from two years previous.

It's not all good. Some characters are sketched so lightly they almost shouldn't have bothered including them - Brian's step-father, an ice cream man is a permissibly peripheral character, highlighting the dearth of a father figure in his life - but Elaine Tan's Lucy, a fellow competitor on the show embarrassingly gets barely a line. Arch-leftie Rebecca also gets a short-shrift, despite being a much more rounded character than sex-bomb Alice. And, as the vast majority of protagonists are well-to-do students at a red brick university, some of the characters may seem less sympathetic than the traditional smorgasbord of races in a Richard Curtis movie.

These are minor criticisms though. Starter for Ten is certainly worth seeing, if only for the fantastic soundtrack - the film is littered with glorious mid '80s rock music, with a particular penchant for classic Cure, and once, brilliantly, an airing of the Buzzcocks' seminal Ever Fallen in Love. Britain, still, is the undisputed king of rose-tinted nostalgia.

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