The Last Bus: Timothy Spall film gives teen busker big break

A Scottish teenage busker is celebrating after two of her songs were selected for the soundtrack of a new British film.

Caitlin Agnew was just 16 when her compositions - "I Wanna" and "Don't Want to Go Home" - were picked to feature in The Last Bus.

Director Gillies MacKinnon said he loved the songs which "really embraced the soul of the film".

Starring award-winning actor Timothy Spall, it opens in cinemas on Friday.

It tells the story of an elderly man who travels from John O'Groats to Land's End carrying the ashes of his late wife in a suitcase, using only local buses.

The road movie was shot on location in Glasgow, Ayrshire, Helensburgh and Lanarkshire.

Caitlin, who is now 19, wrote the music in her bedroom and often busks in Glasgow city centre.

But her big break came after a chance meeting between her grandfather, Jim Agnew, and the film's director.

Jim worked as a vehicle wrangler on the movie, organising all the transport, from vintage buses to luxury coaches.

Caitlin, of Uddingston in Lanarkshire, said: "It's amazing how things work out. My grandad and the director got chatting and when he told me he'd sent on a couple of my songs I honestly thought he was winding me up."

But MacKinnon was impressed with Caitlin's work - especially "Don't Want to Go Home", about a road trip from London, and "I Wanna", about reaching out for comfort during a difficult time.

The director said: "I listened and I just loved these songs. The emotion really embraced the soul of the film. I sent them down to our editor and she loved the songs and she put them into the film.

"And then I thought, well, maybe it's just her and me who love these songs?

"But I began to learn that almost everybody who listened did."

He said he brought lead actor Timothy Spall into the cutting room, as he was an executive on the film, "and he just loved the songs".

"Of course that influences me a lot because, as the person who walks in the shoes of the character, he's really emotionally tuned in," MacKinnon added.

"So I began to think this is just one of these strange and wonderful things that happens, because Caitlin apparently sits in her bedroom and records with just her guitar.

"And yet somehow there's something within the songs that just catches a mood for the film."

Caitlin started writing music aged 15 while still at school.

She is about to enrol on a music business course at college but is self taught, sings, plays ukulele, guitar and keyboards.

Caitlin said: "I just want to sing and write songs. My idols are people like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift as they are quite similar to my style.

"I use music as a way to express how I feel and just being able to get it out there and help other people that feel the same way, gives me a sense of hope.

"These songs just appear from nowhere, they are quite natural. They just kind of happen. Being able to have an audience gives me so much motivation."