Toryboy the Movie

In the genre of documentaries where the film maker takes a project which drives the narrative the film maker John Walsh turn his back of his live long support of the Labour Party and joins the ranks of the Tories. For some Labour supporters it is better red than dead but John does the unthinkable and pins the blue rosette on his lapel. In going through this journey we are confronted with what is actually happening on the ground and this is the strength of the movie. You will get a greater understanding of the political climate of this time from watching this than watching political commentators on the TV or convoluted analysis in the broadsheets. I found it entertaining and felt that John Walsh gave it the right tone to have it be watchable. The frustrations and the absurdity of the political circus had its humorous moments. Overall worth watching.

This film enlightens all to the fact that the (late) MP Sir Stuart Bell, a self-serving MP who spend so little time with his constituents that the people of Middlesborough that he represented for the last 30 years had never even heard of him.

This was an MP who took advantage of the socio-political landscape to spend most of his time not being around and doing the job that he was elected for.

Film-maker John Walsh excellently highlights this fact when he stands himself for political office as the conservative candidate and ends up holding surgeries himself - Bell not having held one surgery for 15 years.

As much as it is humorous this film is a serious look into life in Middlesborough - a town with high unemployment that needs someone to represent the community and it takes John Walsh to try and help whilst standing for the next election.

A really good watch and insight into the world of Middlesborough. Highly recommended.

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.

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.

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.