Noel Clarke: I was left off Fisherman's Friends poster – and none of the cast spoke up
The actor Noel Clarke has spoken out about a failure to include his image on the poster for hit comedy Fisherman’s Friends. The 2019 film – about a motley band of coastal singers – has just been distributed on home entertainment platforms, with the same promotional image as was used for theatrical release.
The image shows the cast members assembled on a harbour wall, but Clarke – whose name does join the others along the top billing – is not among them.
“And I’ll just leave this here,” writes Clarke, before adding: “And not one of these other actors spoke up for me and the fact I was not on here, being as well known as most of them.”
Representatives for the film’s director and cast – which includes James Purefoy, Daniel Mays, Tuppence Middleton and I, Daniel Blake star Dave
Johns – have not yet responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
It is unclear exactly why Clarke’s billing on the poster comes with the “and Noel Clarke” suffix – potentially because his role was deemed insufficiently key to warrant top billing – or why the actor is speaking out now, rather than when the film’s poster was first released in March 2019.
Clarke refrains from elaborating in his post what he thinks the reasons for not including his image might be, but others in his reply timeline have inferred racial prejudice in the decision. Some have also pointed out that Clarke – who was behind the Kidulthood trilogy, as well as starring in Doctor Who and Bulletproof – is potentially the best-known of the group.