"The Secret World of Michael Fry" (2000) TV mini-series

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Marc Munden

Writer:

Paul Abbott (writer)

Release Date:

25 April 2000 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Council Planner Michael Fry uncovers a sinister plot in his Welsh seaside home town and finds himself caught in a growing tide of corruption and sleazy internet sex.

Plot Keywords:

TV Mini-Series | Prostitution | Wales | Surrealism | Urban Planning

Cast

Ewen Bremner	...	Michael Fry
Michael Kitchen	...	Herbie
Martin Glyn Murray	...	Josh
Rosie Marcel	...	Donna
Robert Pugh	...	Hugh Wentworth-Davies
John Pierce Jones	...	Supt Schwartz
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Blythe	...	Lou
Selina Cadell	...	Michael's Mum
Rosie Cavaliero	...	Janine
Liz Daniels	...	Michael's Gran
Frances Grey	...	Elaine
Rhoda Lewis	...	Nesta
Simon Markey	...	G-String
Anna Mountford	...	Carol
Aled Pugh	...	Karl
Gareth Wyn-Jones	...	Peter Senior

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Company:

Endor

Movie Connections:

References "Emmerdale Farm" (1972)

Interesting and unusual 2-part TV mini-series

This was first shown on U.K. TV in 2000 as a mini-series, 2 X 1 hour programs. I missed it then but recently acquired it on a DVD so here is my review. Michael Fry (played by Ewen Bremner) is a rather nerdy planning official working for the local council in a run-down Welsh seaside resort called Llangrych. His parents are Polish but they now live in Llangrych. He is separated from his wife but looks after his 1 year-old son (also called Michael). At the start of the movie his estranged wife is still in Poland but later moves back to U.K. to stay with them. Michael has led an anonymous existence until he is required to attend with police to close down a local hotel, allegedly due to planning permission breaches. It turns out that the building is being used as a brothel! It is here he meets up with Donna, who is one of the prostitutes working there (played by the stunning Rosie Marcel) and a relationship develops between the oddly-matched couple. The pimp in the brothel is Herbie played by the versatile Michael Kitchen. Michael Fry goes on to discover that corrupt council officers plan to use E.U. money to regenerate their tatty town, lining their own pockets in the process. The council leader is Hugh Wentworth-Davies, played as a truly bombastic figure by Robert Pugh. So the story line is quite a simple one but this is a very watchable 2 hours - the superb acting of Marcel and Bremner, forming the odd couple, complement the dreary scenery of the (un-named) Welsh coastal town which was actually used for filming (masquerading as the fictional Llangrych). And as an added bonus we get to see the beautiful Rosie Marcel in several topless and one nude scene, something we never got to see in her appearances in The Bill or The Vice!