The Full Monty: Sheffield’s strippers are back – and this time they’re baring their souls

REVIEW: Sheffield. Historically home to cutlery, a football team somewhat bizarrely called Wednesday and a group of blokes who once alleviated the growing gloom by staging a one-night-only strip show.

But seven prime ministers, eight Northern Regeneration Policies and 26 years later, life for the lads from The Full Monty haven’t exactly improved much, as we rejoin them for a new 10-part series (which begins streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 14).

Home for Gaz (Robert Carlyle) is a four-berth caravan, while Horse (Paul Barber) struggles to make ends meet and Dave (Mark Addy) is spending more time chasing a school snacks thief and doing maintenance work than teaching PE at the Sheffield Spires Academy run by his wife Jean (Lesley Sharp) – a school she describes as “being made of pizza boxes and sellotape” after the girls’ toilets flood for the third time in a year.

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Meanwhile, as Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) gripes about the state of a country where a dog can win Britain’s Got Talent, Lomper (Steve Huison) is being forced to change the name of his café from The Big Baps, because it’s “no longer considered appropriate”.

“The snowflakes have taken over the asylum,” laments his partner Dennis (Paul Clayton). “First, they come for your Pirelli calendar, then they come for your innocent double entendres.”

But while all the gang are struggling with modern-day mores and advances in technology, Gaz has a more immediate crisis. Destiny (Talitha Wing) has literally come calling.

Estranged from the teen for years, he wonders if she’s reached out because of her mother’s drinking, wannabe stepdad Brian, or because she’s pregnant. Turns out, it’s much worse.

While skiving school, Destiny and her best mate Cal (Dominic Sharkey) have escalated from pocketing pick’n’mix to stealing a Range Rover. What they didn’t realise though was that in the back seat was a dog. And not just any pooch – but rather the reality competition-winning Chelsea.

“This hunt has more heat than a murder investigation,” Gaz’s son, local copper Nathan (Wim Snape) confides to his dad, praying that he’s not involved somehow. Unfortunately, that’s now become a necessity after the help Destiny seeks to expunge a careless snap on social media goes rogue.

Rather than simply eliminating the pic of the pooch, Tabani (Natalie Davies) instead sends copies to the owner, the Sheffield Star, the South Yorkshire Police and a bot that spreads the message to 200 accounts a minute, that they’re demanding a £50k ransom for Chelsea’s safe return.

It’s a strong opening gambit for our re-entry into the lives of these blokes who entertained the world back in ‘97 with their riotous, crowd-pleasing comedy (even if their antics annoyed Kiwi writers Stephen Sinclair and Anthony McCarten, who believed the premise a little too close to their own 1987 stage play Ladies Night).

Joined by former Chumbawumba band member Alice Nutter, returning writer Simon Beaufoy does a good job of giving all the characters something to play for, while also integrating a new generation into the mix.

At times, it might feel a little heavy-handed on the “this is not my Britain” lament, but given what the country has been through during the past few years that’s perhaps, like the original, only reflective of what really is the feeling in cities like Sheffield.

And fortunately, they’ve not only continued to root the drama in a way that feels like real-people-facing-real-problems and maintained the black-as-the-ace-of-spades humour, but also ensured many of the laughs come from the sheer inventiveness and cheeky likeability of the central characters.

It’s a perhaps an unexpected and unlikely encore, but it is most definitely a welcome one.

The Full Monty begins streaming on Disney+ on the evening of June 14.