Home to roost

Scottish star Robert Carlyle follows his Trainspotting sequel with a return to his other early career-defining character in a TV version of The Full Monty.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

He's been a Bond villain, a space villain, a fairy-tale villain, too. But Scottish actor Robert Carlyle's long and colourful screen career hinges on two roles he did in 1996 and 1997: Begbie in Trainspotting and Gaz in The Full Monty.

He's already brought back the psychotic Begbie in T2 Trainspotting, director Danny Boyle's 2019 revisit of author Irvine Welsh's characters 20 years later.

Now it's the turn of Gaz, the man who led his unemployed Sheffield mates to male striptease glory. He and the rest of the troupe return in an eight-part drama series of the same name for Disney+.

It's yet another streaming revival of a past cinema hit, one giving the American-centric platform its first working-class English drama. The eight episodes are by the film's original screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, joined by Alice Nutter, who in 1997 was singing the hit Tubthumping in her former band Chumbawamba. And, yes, the show is about Gaz and mates getting knocked down and getting up again, despite their advancing years.

The Listener finds Carlyle, via Zoom, at home in Vancouver. He's lived there for a decade-plus with his family after first being based there for television shows Stargate Universe (the space one) and Once Upon a Time (the fairytale one).

Just to be clear, there's no stripping in this one?

Nobody wants to see that. Come on.

Just thought I should check, having seen the first few episodes and everyone has kept their kit on.

There is a nod to it in episode six... during the scene in question, You Can Leave Your Hat On gets pumped through the speakers and that music is so synonymous with the film, it just takes you back to that place. It was actually quite an emotional moment.