Danny Boyle tells us what to expect from Trainspotting 2

It’s happening. It’s coming back. Oh God please let it be good.

That’s right, Trainspotting 2 will be hitting the big screens early next year, so we caught up with legendary director Danny Boyle to find out what exactly we can expect from the anticipated sequel.

“It’s weird. People come up to you in the street and talk to you about Sick Boy or Renton. And it’s like, when was the last film where you remembered the character names? You don’t. You might remember one name of someone from a film. But four or more of the character names?

“That’s a tribute to Irvine Welsh’s original imagination and the way John Hodge developed the characters in these manifestations of them. So a lot of [the reason for doing T2] was that: people still feel the characters, in a way, and I did. I’d see the actors in other things and I’d get a feeling for this.

“I always thought the first film was about friendship. Everyone said it was about drugs, but I didn’t. And this film is the same, in a way.

“The French don’t have an expression for middle age: for them, you go from the old age of youth into the youth of old age. And that’s sort of what this is like.

“There was an amazing series called The Likely Lads that was on television when I was a little kid. They stopped making it and then they brought back a sequel, about seven years later, and called it Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? Later, there was a song written about it [What Became Of The Likely Lads] by The Libertines: ‘Oh, what became of the likely lads?/Oh, what became of the dreams we had?’ And it was that feeling of thinking: what a way to be able to look at yourself, these guys and Britain as a whole through that prism – a prism of familiarity – and everybody needed updating.”

T2: Trainspotting is at cinemas nationwide from 27 January