Film
The Full Monty
The Full Monty is a wickedly funny British comedy about six unemployed Sheffield steelworkers who decide to strip for cash, but underneath the bare skin is a tender study of male pride, depression and mateship amid Thatcher's wreckage-strewn North. It's warmer than raunchy, more about dignity reclaimed than flesh bared, and works as both crowd-pleaser and quiet gut-punch.
If you liked this
Brassed Off1996
Same Yorkshire pit-town despair turned into comedy-drama, following a colliery brass band fighting to survive as the industry around them dies, with the exact blend of laughs and heartbreak.
But The politics are angrier and the ending less triumphant, so it lands harder than a night out.
Billy Elliot2000
Another Northern town gutted by the miners' strike, another story about men learning that expressing yourself doesn't make you less of one - just with ballet instead of a G-string.
But It's a child's coming-of-age story first, and the political backdrop is more brutal throughout.
Kinky Boots2005
A failing English shoe factory, a drag-queen collaborator, and the same message that reinvention beats redundancy, told with big, crowd-pleasing energy.
But Broader and more sentimental, with a rom-com sheen the original never bothered with.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Boys from the Blackstuff1982
Same men, same decade, same wound - jobless, working-class, desperate to hold onto some scrap of pride - but Alan Bleasdale never lets you laugh it off.
Five Liverpool men chase work and dignity through Thatcher's unemployment lines in this landmark BBC drama - the despair The Full Monty turns into a laugh is here left raw and devastating.
But There's no strip show at the end, no triumph - it will leave you wrung out, not cheering.
More like this (8)
Pride2014
True story of gay activists and Welsh miners finding solidarity during the strikes - the same collision of working-class dignity and unlikely allies, played for warmth and laughs.
But More explicitly political and occasionally on-the-nose, with less interest in ambiguity.
Waking Ned1998
A tiny community pulls together on a scheme that requires everyone to bare a little of themselves, figuratively, with the same gentle, ensemble comic rhythm.
But Cosier and lower stakes - nobody's world is actually falling apart here.
Calendar Girls2003no page yet
Ordinary people strip off for a good cause and discover courage they didn't know they had - practically the film's female mirror image, nerves and all.
But Sweeter and safer, without the undercurrent of real desperation driving the original.
Local Hero1983
Not about stripping, but a community facing economic upheaval with the same shambling, melancholy-comic tone and a soft spot for its odd characters.
But Slower and dreamier, set in Scotland rather than a steel town - a very different rhythm.
The Van1996no page yet
Roddy Doyle's Dublin comedy about unemployed mates starting a chip van has the identical texture: broke men, black humour, and friendship as the only safety net.
But Rougher and less polished, with thicker accents and a more improvised feel throughout.
Made in Dagenham2010
Another factory, another fight for dignity - this time women machinists striking for equal pay, with a similar mix of comedy and righteous anger.
But More earnest history lesson than character comedy, with less room for absurdity.
Magic Mike2012no page yet
Same premise - ordinary men taking their clothes off for money - played completely straight-faced as glamour instead of survival, showing what the joke looks like without the desperation underneath.
The other end of the male-stripping spectrum: gorgeous, professional, unapologetically horny, following a dancer navigating ambition and image within Tampa's stripping scene.
But Any hint of unemployment-era pathos is gone - this is glossy fantasy, not kitchen-sink comedy.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning1960
Same industrial North, same claustrophobic sense that a man's worth is tied to his job and his masculinity, told decades earlier without the comfort of comedy.
The film that basically invented the angry-young-man-in-an-industrial-English-town mode The Full Monty later turns into comedy, following a rebellious factory worker chafing against a life already mapped out for him.
But It's black-and-white, unsentimental, and genuinely angry - not a laugh to be found anywhere.
People
Cast
Robert CarlyleGary "Gaz" Schofield
Mark AddyDave Horsefall
Wim SnapeNathan Schofield
Steve HuisonLomper
Tom WilkinsonGerald Arthur Cooper
Paul BarberBarrington "Horse" Mitchell
Hugo SpeerGuy
Lesley SharpJean Horsefall
Emily WoofMandy- Deirdre CostelloLinda Cooper
Paul ButterworthBarry
Dave HillAlan
Directing
- Peter CattaneoDirector
Writing
- Simon BeaufoyWriter
Production
- Lesley StewartAssociate Producer
- Susie FiggisCasting
- Paul BucknorCo-Producer
- Polly LeysCo-Producer
- Uberto PasoliniProducer
Recommended by
Big Deal on Madonna Street, Logan Lucky, Passport to Pimlico, Waking Ned, The Titfield Thunderbolt, Brassed Off, Strictly Ballroom, Only Fools and Horses...., Billy Elliot, Marty, Pride, The Commitments, Made in Dagenham, Kinky Boots, Slap Shot, Fierce Creatures, CODA, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Boys from the Blackstuff, The Intouchables, Bend It Like Beckham, The Longest Yard, The Stars Look Down, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, I, Daniel Blake, Love on the Dole, Billy Liar