Toryboy the Movie

With politics on everyone's lips these days this film from the UK and the 2010 election is like Nostradamus of the worlds Poltical future. Filmmaker John Walsh lifts the lids on old school dirty and corrupt politics. He is a novice candidate but with the razor sharp wit and skills in the best filmmaking tradition.

Whilst a 100 min film about the UK general election might seem like snores-ville this hidden gem from filmmaker John Walsh had me, laughing, crying and punching the air - with anger. John Walsh became a political candidate to lift the lid on the way candidates are chosen. Inside he found a system more corrupt than any TV drama or Netflix series like The Politician could have imagined. Won;t say anymore, but glamours this isn't. Top marks to John Walsh filmmaker of the year for sure.

When the Conservatives smashed the Labour Party's stranglehold on the impoverished north of England in 2019, one name came to mind. Filmmaker John Walsh had been there to make a devastating critique of the whole political system in the north and focus on Middlesbrough. In a town where the local MP hadn't worked for his constituents in at least 15 years of his 30-year occupation of that Parliamentary seat. Walsh's expose of Sir Sturt Bell MP, and the subsequent aftershocks have, in my mind, led to the cracks in the Red Wall. John Walsh says he found this all out organically and did not intend to create one of the most controversial political documentary features ever made. You can make your kind up. To some, he is a hero for exposing a corrupt system. To others he he is a villain and betrayed a working-class ethic that keeps poor people in their place. The gutter if Labour has anything to do with it. I see some reviews here try and defend the Labour position. The film is on Prime Video and free for subscribers.

Watch, listen, learn, chuckle and get very angry.

John Walsh is unanimously accepted by Middlesborough's Conservative party as their ideal candidate for the 2010 General Election to go up against the incumbent Labour party MP who's held the seat for 30 years. The fact that the local party accepts a young middle class man from England's south - a film-maker and a self-confessed "Ginger" to boot - to run in a town that's utterly down to earth and resolutely working-class frankly smacks of desperation but Walsh accepts the challenge and sets to work.

Whether Walsh wants to run as an MP because he genuinely wants to help the people or because he thinks it's a great opportunity to make a film is not entirely clear but he quickly establishes that he's committed, charismatic and prepared to do the work and, whatever your political stripes, you embrace the film as he makes the round of paper shops and old ladies tea-parties in the desperate hope of knocking the incumbent of his perch.

In a scenario that reminds you of Michael Moore's Roger & Me Walsh tries desperately to locate his nemesis the incumbent - a politician who never answers his phone, allegedly hangs out in Paris, has a ruffian for a son and, when we finally get to see him, is revealed as a man with a staggeringly bad set of teeth. Toryboy is certainly an enjoyable ride and, even if your sympathies are on the socialist side of the fence, you find yourself desperately wanting the man to win even though the fact that the same few locals appear rather too often in the footage is frankly worrying.

If films and TV have taught us nothing else it is that Politics is a dirty business. Why then was I hypnotised by this film from John Walsh that looks at an English General Election in the north part of the country where it is the poorest? When this kicked off I thought it might be a pseudo docu spoof. It is funny for sure, but it is also timely, yet this was filmed way back in 2010. Walsh is a likeable guy from the world of film and TV. He hit the election trail with a guy who might be his boyfriend, a sexy lad also called John. There does seem to be a bit of sexual tension or energy here, or both. FYI the other John has a 'girlfriend' who comes to visit. Beard anyone???? Anyway the plot is about a scandal that is to do with the sitting politician who has been there for 30 years and is off the sale bad. Think Richard Nixon with an addition to rape porn!!! Watch this, learn from it and pass it on please. I saw it on Prime Video but it may also be on DVD and other formats.