The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
A warm drama guaranteed to put lead in your pencil
Writer Matthew Barry’s story of an early clinical trial in South Wales for the drug that would become Viagra was a perfect Christmas tonic to lift spirits. And possibly other things, too. Forgive the lame gag but there were several similar in Men Up
(BBC One). Nonetheless, in the main it got the tone just right. There was nothing groundbreaking here, but that felt apt for the truth in this tale: love and sex, it insisted, are not the same thing. In a relationship, talking is often more important than doing.
Barry began with one of the world’s first medical trials for the famed blue pill, held in Swansea’s Morriston Hospital in 1994 and administered to men with erectile dysfunction, caused by diabetes. Our subjects were men with varying degrees of emotional repression. The story for all was that though the silver bullet cured what they thought was the problem – flaccidity – that seeming miracle only highlighted other things in their lives that weren’t quite right.
Meurig (Iwan Rheon) for example, yearned for intimacy with his wife, Ffion (Alex Roach). She’d had a double mastectomy and thought the lack of spark in their marriage was her fault. Their path to happiness turned out not to be through magic pills but through communication and mutual care.
Likewise, Colin (Steffan Rhodri), another diffident man living an isolated life with his crossword puzzles following his wife’s death. The prospect of a new relationship struck fear into his heart but, again, his erections or lack thereof turned out only to conceal other concerns.
And so on through a likeable ensemble of gruff man’s man Eddie (Mark Lewis Jones), Tommy (Paul Rhys), a gay man who lies about his sexuality because the trial was set up for straight sex, and middle-class accountant Pete (Phaldut Sharma). In every case, their problem turned out to be as much in their heads as it was in their pants. Love, not pharmaceuticals, was the key.
If that sounds a little cheesy, well… yes, Men Up didn’t eschew the sentimental, but it got the balance between story, message and put-some-lead-in-your-pencil humour just right. The normal blokes at the heart of it all were beautifully cast, beautifully played, so that it worked best as a credible portrayal of male friendship (something TV rarely gets right.)
With that established, Full Monty flourishes such as the dance sequences were at least palatable (if never, to these eyes, desirable). The rest of it was charming, salutary, one for men, lovers and couples everywhere. Benji Wilson
Two brothers who aren’t speaking after one published an explosive “whinge memoir” called Afterthought. A tell-all interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby, insisting, “I had to get my truth down on paper”. Remind you of anyone? As a deadpan voiceover intoned: “Of all the books about warring brothers released in 2023,
Afterthought was definitely the most sensational.” There was even a physical altercation involving a dog bowl. “There was Pedigree Chum all up the wall,” one brother recalled. “It stank.”
Who would have thought that the funniest programme of the festive period would come from 1980s New Romantic band Spandau Ballet? The
Kemps: All Gold (BBC Two) was a spoof documentary with a high gag rate and a bracing lack of scruples about how it elicited its laughs.
A sequel to 2020’s mock rock-doc The Kemps: All True, it purported to follow dysfunctional brothers Gary and Martin Kemp across an eventful year. Martin was being divorced by his wives, Pepsi and Shirley, so needed to make money fast. His solution? An anniversary tour. Unfortunately, Gary was busy with his own ambitious project, Spandau: The Ballet.
This uproarious film was the work of Rhys Thomas, who played himself as the long-suffering documentarymaker. His sparky script took potshots at everyone from Bros to McCartney, from vegan eco evangelists to rockers who move to stately piles. There was even a sly political dig when the Kemps were arrested and a police officer said: “We never cuff the white ones.”
We were treated to a veritable Band Aid’s worth of cameos. Christopher Eccleston played the band’s longtime producer, while Dexter Fletcher, Tamzin Outhwaite, Adil Ray and Lenny Rush had a ball in supporting roles. This was Spandau doing Spinal Tap. A laugh-out-loud send-up of earnest rockumentaries, ageing musicians and the pop nostalgia circuit.
Proceedings became uneven towards the end and a subplot about converting Gary’s barn into a “cultural hub” called Spandau Valley didn’t quite earn its place. Otherwise this was comedy gold indeed.
Men Up ★★★★
The Kemps: All Gold ★★★★