Plot
Richard Thorncroft is a has-been British television actor who used to be famous in the late 1980s for playing the charismatic title character in the Isle of Man detective show Mindhorn, a character with a robotic eye that can literally "see the truth". Unfortunately, after becoming a little too pompous and arrogant, Richard ends up insulting the Isle of Man and his fellow cast members on the Wogan chat-show, including his on-screen and real-life love interest Patricia Deville (Essie Davies), his stuntman (Simon Farnaby), and bit-part co-star Peter Easterman (Steve Coogan). He decides to leave to try and make it big in Hollywood, but twenty-five years later he's balding in a flat in North London and has recently been replaced for an orthopaedic sock advertisement by John Nettles, much to his chagrin. He is even more jealous that Easterman now fronts a long-running spin-off show which has far eclipsed the success of Mindhorn. Richard has an unexpected opportunity to reignite his career though when a delusional criminal calling himself "The Kestrel" (Russell Tovey) starts terrorizing the Isle of Man and, having an extremely unhealthy obsession with the show, demands to talk only to Mindhorn. Relishing a chance for publicity, Richard dons his turtleneck and robot eye, aggravates the police with his method acting, tries to rekindle his old romance with Patricia, and also attempts to sign a Mindhorn DVD deal with Eastman. With his 1980s political incorrectness, solo musical single, useless cyborg eyepatch, and cheesy one-liners, Mindhorn is here to bring an apocalypse of justice. It's truth time.
Written by
Julian Barratt, Simon Farnaby
Directed by
Sean Foley
Crew
Production Countries
United Kingdom
Production Companies
StudioCanal, Baby Cow Productions, Pinewood Pictures, Isle of Man Film, Scott Free Productions, BBC Films
Languages
English
Awards
1 win & 2 nominations total