Thursday, 6 August 2020

Beyond The TARDIS Fisherman's Friends by DJ Forrest



Jago: Put on a pair of shades ....and I'm Bonio!
Leadville: It's Bono, you pillock


Written by Piers Ashworth, Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft
Directed by Chris Foggin
Starring James Purefoy, Daniel Mays, David Hayman, Maggie Steed and Noel Clarke.

Ten fishermen from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties.

A light hearted film with laughs and sadness going hand in hand. It's sea shanties galore. It's Cornwall. It's pubs and fishing and life boats and cars parked too close to the water's edge. It's David Hayman, James Purefoy, Daniel Mays and Noel Clarke. It's a good, toe tapping, hand clapping, head nodding, sing along kind of film, where 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor' becomes your new earworm for the week.

Fisherman's Friends is the true story of a group of 10 fishermen who are the life blood of their little community in Port Isaac, who don't just catch crab and lobster for their village but are also the lifeboat men around that part of the coast, and during their spare time, sing sea shanties to the locals and holidaymakers out on the sea front.

Danny played by Daniel Mays, plays a London Music Executive who joins his friends for a stag weekend in Cornwall, and is pranked by Troy, his boss, and friend played by Noel Clarke, into signing up the Sea Shanty group for a record deal of a lifetime.

This is a hard task considering the group would rather put friendship and loyalty ahead of fame and indeed fortune. Danny has his work cut out here.

It's a great story and brings with it a sense of community that is often lacking in the world we live in. Of course, sometimes the flip side of community life, is that everyone knows your business but in this instance, everyone works together until they discover Danny has tested their loyalty when young Rowan asks for some financial advice and ends up selling the Pub.

There are a host of well known names heading up this cast of sea shanty singers. I'm unsure if the actors really sang the songs, or if the original group were dubbed over them but to be fair, whichever way they sang, it was an uplifting film and I can't wait for the sequel.





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