WELCOME TO GRIMSBY!
Street brawl at 10am ... in town that cried foul over film parody
WHEN Sacha Baron Cohen film Grimsby portrayed the town as a hotbed of drunken hooliganism, many locals were furious.
But these extraordinary CCTV images suggest the depiction wasn’t so unfair after all – at least as far as these two thugs are concerned.
Shocked passers-by, including a mother pushing her child in a pram, watched in amazement as the duo punched and kicked each other in broad daylight.
Police were called at 10.40am on Thursday as the unidentified men exchanged blows outside a barber’s shop.
The fight lasted over a minute, with the bare- chested thug leaving the other man bleeding from a head wound. The pair then separated but continued to hurl abuse at one another.
A local shopkeeper, who called police, said: ‘It was shocking. It is disgusting to see this sort of thing going on in broad daylight in front of children.’
The fight began on the pavement before spilling into the road, forcing vehicles to swerve out of the way. Another onlooker said: ‘This had been brewing for a while. There was an argument earlier, but now it has got serious. It’s not nice to have to witness it.’
Neither man was arrested as both left before officers arrived.
Comedy actor Baron Cohen, 45, wrote and starred in the box office flop Grimsby, released last year to poor reviews.
It focused on his character Nobby Butcher’s journey to reconnect with his long-lost brother Sebastian, an MI6 agent played by Mark Strong.
Father-of-11 Nobby is an alcoholic football hooligan who lives on benefits in the Lincolnshire fishing port.
Many locals were angry at the depiction of their town and its residents. In response to the film, North East Lincolnshire Council launched a social media campaign to highlight good things about Grimsby.