The Kemps: All Gold

If The Kemps: All True was a mockumentary made to poke fun of the serious but inadvertently hilarious one made by the former boy band Bros.

The follow up by Rhys Thomas is to take a sarcastic look at the word of music in 2023. Especially the antics of once famous pop stars from the 1970s and 80s.

Mirroring real life. The Kemps have had an uneasy relationship with the other bandmates from Spandau Ballet since they split. At times they are like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Bickering then putting aside their differences for monetary value. In the bands case a reunion tour.

The fictionalised documentary has Martin Kemp getting kicked out by his two wives Pepsi and Shirlie. Moving to his brother's Gary home in the country.

Only Gary is not too pleased to see his brother after Martin's explosive tell all autobiography (a dig at Prince William and Harry)

Gary is busy doing a ballet about the Spandau Ballet years but there is an chance to jump on the rock biopic bandwagon.

A movie about Spandau Ballet directed by Dexter Fletcher who also did We Will Rock You. CGI would be used to make the Kemps look younger. Only Gary is not happy that the true story is heavily fictionalised.

Also they band do not own the rights to use their song since they sold off the rights to a music corporation. With the help of music producer Luke Dunmore (Christopher Eccleston) they attempt to steal the master tapes as the alternative is to do a Taylor Swift and re-record the original songs.

Their manager John Farrow (Michael Kitchen) always with an eye on a quick cash grab. Hopes to get the Kemps to do a televised live concert on New Years Eve with Harry Styles a guest vocalist. A mashup like when Dire Straits hooked up with Chris Rea and called themselves Dire Rea. However they end up settling for Francis Rossi who reworks all the songs with the familiar Status Quo guitar chords.

Everything is all set for a live televised concert on the BBC. There is just a small matter of a river getting polluted with Gary's vegan meat products that had unfortunate side effects.

Rhys Thomas does well with his low budget. He always manages to get an all star cast. The Kemps fully throw themselves into it and that's why it works. At times hilarious and also taking potshots at the the music business.

Saw in 2024 with another slab of playful Kemp madness from Rhys Thomas and it was utterly wonderful. This wonky bit of mockmentarianism has everything thrown at it with knowing cameos up the wazoo and occupies the kind of warmly foolish spot on the beeb that folk like Vic & Bob and Harry & Paul used to. That it's the Kemp brothers doing that manner of caper now is still authentically very strange and the more you know, the more you get out of this barrage of silly larking. Eccleston, as in Dodger, is the real force here and even gets a bit of revenge on his Let Him Have It co-star Paul Reynolds. It's... gloriously niche.

The comedy equivalent of dad jokes. It's unsubtle, not actually funny and Rhys Thomas really needs to give it a rest.

I thought some of the Brain Pern "mockumentaries" that Rhys Thomas made were, by comparison, quite creative and entertaining -- and Simon Day's deadpan performances added a lot.

Perhaps it's that, although Brian Pern was played by Simon Day, here the Kemp brothers are actually playing themselves? It's not that the Kemp brothers are bad actors, but that Rhys Thomas seems unable to find the right "distance" from the people he is caricaturing. (The marriage to both Pepsi and Shirlie was an interesting idea, but other than joking that they would jointly get 100% of their husband's assets on divorce, little was made of it.)

A follow-up to the special from 2020 - which wasn't bad and pretty decent. This 'sequel' is on another level to that. Some brilliant guests and some hilarious jokes. Fair play to the Kemp brothers for not allowing their ego to get in the way. I honestly hope they continue making these, and if they do, make them as good as this one. Very surprised by the quality in the writing and the boys' performances. Loved it and a great late Xmas surprise. I wouldn't even worry about seeing the first one, if you haven't seen it. I would just jump straight to this. They do explain any continuity from the first one in the form of quick flashbacks. But again, the first one was pretty good.