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Svengali

3/10

Stars: Jonny Owen, Vicky McClure, Roger Evans, Martin Freeman, Maxine Peake, Michael Socha, Dylan Edwards, Joel Fry, Curtis Lee Thompson, Brian Hibbard, Sharon Morgan, Morwenna Banks -

Director: John Hardwick

Apparently this minor comic offering started off as a sketch comedy on You Tube before boldly going onto the big screen where the literal sketchiness of the saga of Welsh postman (and co-producer and writer) Jonny Owen heads for London with his girlfriend Vicky McClure bearing a bag of cassettes (he lives in a Mod past, or so he believes) to achieve his ambition to manage a band.

Which, after various problems, many of them due to underwriting and lack of comic content, he achieves but not before going broke, losing his girlfriend and stretching my patience.

A few reasonable jokes emerge and it’s possible that fans of Martin ‘The Hobbit’ Freeman might enjoy seeing him away from the Shires and instead hamming it up in a gaudy shirt, an East London accent and glasses with coloured (blue and pink) lenses as the owner of a record shop where Owen briefly works.

The most enjoyable aspect for me was director John Hardwick’s attractive use of London locations. As comedies go, it doesn’t make it very far.

Alan Frank

UK 2013. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour by TVC.
92 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 15 Mar 2014