Julian Barratt, Andrea Riseborough, Essie Davis
The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt and co-writer Simon Farnaby’s joyously off-the-wall creation follows in the grand tradition of pompous, spectacularly oblivious yet vulnerable British losers, from Alan Partridge to David Brent.
Washed-up Richard Thorncroft peaked with hit 1980s detective show Mindhorn, playing the titular Isle of Man sleuth with a robotic eye that allowed him to literally ‘see the truth’. Mindhorn escaped and fled to the Isle of Man to recuperate in the island’s temperate microclimate and became the best plain-clothes detective the island had ever seen.
Decades later, when a deranged Manx criminal demands Mindhorn as his nemesis, Thorncroft returns to the scene of his greatest triumphs for one last chance to reignite his glory days, professional credibility and even romance with former co-star/paramour Patricia Deville.
It’s a loving send-up of vintage home-grown detective shows and much more, with terrific support from Farnaby, Steve Coogan and perennial location stand-in the Isle of Man playing itself to cheeky perfection. See the truth: Mindhorn is quite conceivably the next great British cult movie comedy.
Wildly silly and raucous… a creation to savour
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ∗∗∗∗