The Full Monty

Six men in Sheffield, unemployed after the steelworks close, decide to put on a strip show to make money. The comedy is not in the nudity but in men ashamed of their bodies and their unemployment at the same time. Made for 3.5 million dollars, it grossed 257.9 million worldwide and was the highest-grossing film in the UK until Titanic overtook it. It took four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, with Anne Dudley winning for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. It won Best Film at both the BAFTAs and the European Film Awards, and the British Film Institute ranked it the 25th best British film of the twentieth century. Its stage life was long. A Broadway musical in 2000 Americanised the characters and setting. A play by original screenwriter Simon Beaufoy opened in Sheffield in 2013 and transferred to the West End, where it closed after a month. In 2023 a limited series for Disney+ and FX brought the original cast back. Who it is for: viewers who like British working-class comedy and humour built on embarrassment. Who it is not for: anyone expecting political depth. Post-Thatcher unemployment is the backdrop and the film does not argue about it.