A Channel 4 adaptation of Jonathan Trigell’s 2004 novel, this was the film that got Garfield noticed. A fictional take on a Jamie Bulger-like case, this sees the actor as Jack Burridge, one of two child murderers, who’s released from prison after serving 14 years for a still-controversial crime and is shrouded in anonymity to give him a chance to build his own life. Known as 'Boy A' to the criminal justice system and renamed Eric Wilson as he strikes out alone, Garfield’s character is a young man tortured by a past he can never entirely shake off and isolated by his fear that it will forever colour his world. Peter Mullan is the sympathetic rehabilitation worker who tries to help him rebuild his identity, but this is very much Garfield’s film, the actor mixing sensitivity and nervy likeability with a sense of the darkness underneath. This is still the performance often name-checked by directors as the reason they wanted to work with Garfield, and garnered the actor a TV BAFTA for Best Actor for his turn. Not a bad start for a leading man, all things considered.