Men Up

Men Up is a BBC television movie regarding the clinical trials for a new wonder drug formulated in the 1990s. It went on to be called Viagra.

It is based on true facts which means about 1% of it is true. This dramedy features five men who have been selected by Dr Dylan Pearce (Aneurin Barnard.) He is an expert on flaccid issues caused by diabetes.

This new wonder drug could be a boon. Especially for the men who are selected to try the pills out.

Of course during the course of the movie. There are side effects, the drug is not a quick fix. The drug cannot solve some underlying issues with some of the relationships. One or two marriages are on the verge of breaking apart. One man pretends to be hetereosexual when he has been in a same sex relationship for years. Being gay was against the rules of the medical trials. For one man the drug does not work at all.

It was enjoyable enough but to me it felt like this was a movie made by a committee. There was nothing creative or edgy here.

How refreshing it is to watch a program set outside London and not be distracted by fake accents or characters shoehorned in to the script.

A well put together cast with a range of threads running through the main narrative. The film isn't going to break any records but it tells an interesting story from different points of view. It doesn't try to be anything it's not by going over the top with the storylines or time-period references.

The story itself is one that deserves to be told and the film is sympathetic to the feelings of people that would have taken part in the real life trials.

An enjoyable watch, which should be praised for concentrating on telling the story.

Didn't know what to expect from a drama about a drug that treats erectile dysfunction and impotence. What I got was frank yet not gritty (as is usually the case), set in 90s Wales but not bleak, about sex but not sexy; all in all, it felt real, and did it's best to address as many different experiences of the men undergoing the trial as possible. I really enjoyed it. There are some excellent, believable performances in there too with (thankfully) no fake-sounding Welsh accents. There are 5 men to follow and somehow you end up caring about all of them, and their partners. Stefan Rhodri and Mark Lewis Jones' characters have some beautiful moments and stop Iwan Rheon stealing the slow. Definitely worth 87 minutes of your time.

Wow ! What a sensitive subject mixed with breast cancer, diabetes, the tribulations of being gay, suicide and a VHS video player that expires. Swansea, The Gower, Morriston Hospital adds a poignancy to the plot especially as my family roamed from the Rhondda.

The cast were well balanced and it was fantastic not to be swamped by the star syndrome. Meurig played by Iwan Rheon just about stole it with his sensitivity, vulnerability and imitation of a boy who went up a mountain as a boy and came down as a man.

The surprising use of humour without being smutty was the master stroke. ( Oops ...see it's almost impossible to avoid double entendres ). The variety of outcomes for the not famous five was very different and yet believable. A great body of work from writer Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way.

I can imagine the writers of this sittng in a meeting wondering what they can produce as an excuse to show couples engaged in sexual activity. The outcome? Men up, A one off (Thank god) drama about the discovery of the drug called viagra. This break through may have been a game changer for many long suffering men, but as a drama it was about as relavent as news that churchill lost the election after the war. Had it concentrated more about the process of the discovery and less about the patiants, even if it were to have just cut out the bonking in the bedroom scenes, it might have worked better. But the writers were only interested in something that would show as much titilation as possible thus failing to produce something that would qualify as being something intelegent.