A 20th anniversary screening of the spoof documentary featuring Graham Fellows character comic John Shuttleworth. Always bumbling and inapropriate, Shuttleworth sets for Shetland to prove his theoiry that people are nicer in the UK the further north you travel. To record this he's recruited photographer Martin Parr, along with a tech team, to make the film of his journey and investigations. Of course, John being John, it isn't all slick and predictable, as he makes his way around in an old Austin Ambassador...
The result is often badly filmed, awkward, full of minutae, with rambling commentary and moments of unexpected sadness. Plus some arguments between subject and cameraman! And it's still, after 2 decades, hilarious. Fellows clearly has a lot of warmth and affection for his comedy creation, and for the people he talks to in his 'investigation'. The best moments are often improvised, frequently with people in the street they hadn't even planned to talk to. It's all beautifully done as parody of the real thing, and fun to see so much going wrong.
There was a chat with Fellows after the screening, which told us more about the making of the film (which mentioned that the on-screen tension between Fellows and Parr was often real!), the unintentional additions which made things worse (better!), like the helicopter cameraman they hired who turned out to genuinely awful. Shuttleworth still has a life on stage, and will for some time to come.
And yes, he did find people were nicer up north!
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