The Fattest Man in Britain

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

In a day and age where fame comes to the talentless quite easily, there are people getting noticed all the time for their comically over-sized bodies who are always appearing in the papers for being a sideshow or not being able to work and claiming benefits...So being such a current affairs matter, the renowned Timothy Spall has donned a super-size fat suit to play one such spectacle, Georgie Godwin, who we learn through-out the course of this TV film has become super-morbidly obese not entirely through his own fault, and has survived through years of being a sideshow and cash cow to his so-called best mate Morris (Bobby Ball) only for a new friendship with a young girl to save his salvation again.

The lighting is a little too grey and bleak for what was meant to be such light entertainment, not to mention the script throwing up some heavy content and strong language knocking out the family market. But at it's heart it's still a good natured, gentle piece that strikes just the right balance between hilarious and heart warming. Ball is a surprise return after being away for so long, and even more surprising (and relevant) is the appearance of real life Birmingham fat man Barry Austin, as Georgie's rival in a local 'super fat' contest. ***

The story evolves around the true story of heavyweight man Jack Taylor. A miracle man's story of someone who would eat enough for a medium sized family daily; he also used his habits to create fame involving using his home as a seeing gallery for tourists and locals wanting to pay for his time. The movie epitomizes the real life story with its own cast making a adaptation by changing the names of the people and locations and background story. Unfortunately the real life character dies of a heart attack one night alone in his home, and this story is a homage to his death as one of the largest person's in history, also it pays respect to his own life as a well loved individual in his own society. The film was a TV movie for ITV UK, and made a very good first impression to the home audience.

I saw this production after reading the synopsis, and seeing familiar names in the cast, I was expecting a riveting and well written comedy, but apart from a couple of lines, I didn't find it funny.

They basically made comedy from bad language and abuse, unfunny stereotyping, and the whole concept wasn't a particularly great one.

So if you think that abuse towards overweight people is funny and like the occasional bit of bad language and toilet humour, it might be up your street. But this wasn't a film which I particularly liked.

Was looking forward to this from the start and i wasn't disappointed! The whole cast were brilliant, especially Bobby Ball playing the dirty, foul mouthed manager (hope we get to see his character again in the future), Wonderfully shot,great script with both laughter and enough tender moments to keep it from turning farcical.

Well done to everyone involved. The make up was really good for a T.V drama, location was spot on, Badly Drawn Boys music was perfect for the show.

I just hope we can see more of this quirky style of television soon.

Loved it!!!

Reliable, solid performance as usual from Timothy Spall. As one who looks forward to uplifting dramas especially during these current times of economic recession, I found the last 2 minutes of what was billed as a comedy drama very uplifting – particularly after sitting through 2 hours of this. A word of congratulations must go to Jeff Pope and Caroline Aherne who seemed to have managed with ease to release Bobby Ball from his Christian beliefs by prolonged use of his foul language - quite a contrast from an earlier appearance he made on 'Songs of Praise.' It was billed as a comedy drama. I missed the comedy part. Is this what we really want on weekend prime time television in the UK?