He’s no stranger to superheroics, having played none other than Spider-Man on the big screen but Epsom actor Andrew Garfield faced up to genuine real-life heroism on his latest project.

In Breathe, which opens the BFI London Film Festival tonight, Garfield plays Robin Cavendish, a man who was given three months to live after being paralysed by polio aged 28 in the 1950s but, alongside his driven wife Diana (Claire Foy) goes on to defy doctors, live a full life and become an advocate for disabled rights.

Not only is it an inspiring love story that tackles the medical and social prejudice around disability, but it is a true story – Cavendish was the real-life father of producer Jonathan Cavendish – and that makes it all the more powerful.

A former pupil at Priory Prep School in Banstead and City of London Freeman’s School in Ashtead, Garfield said: “There is something truly heroic about the life that Robin created with Diana and their friends.

“What so important to highlight is that it was a community effort.

“It wasn’t this one man and his superheroics, which is a story that we get fed a lot in our culture now. But I think there is some other story that I think will save us from the terrible situation that we are in culturally and societally, that we are all absolutely needed, that everyone has some genius to offer.

“One of the remarkable things about the script and the story and Jonathan and his parents’ life is that it took a village, it really did.”

Breathe, which is also the directorial debut of Lord of the Rings/Planet of the Apes actor Andy Serkis, is the latest in a line of critically well-received roles for Garfield, following on from his multi-award nominated lead in Hacksaw Ridge last year.

And it was a cracker of a script from Bill Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Mis) that drew him in.

The 34-year-old said: “Bill’s script is so moving and it is very rare that you read a film script that just kills you and makes you a blithering mess of a person in a pile of your own tears and snot.

“And that’s what happened to all of us and we just tried to do that justice and do the lives of Jonathan’s parents justice.

“For me it is just a template of how to live. What Robin and Diana did, somehow they made such a joyous, inspired and fully-lived life experience out of terrible loss. That is why I think it is such a universal story and inspiring story.”

Breathe opens the BFI London Film Festival tonight (Wednesday, October 4). Go to bfi.org.uk/lff