144. Being Frank - The Chris Sievey Story; movie review

BEING FRANK - THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY
Cert 15
103 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language

I wasn't aware of Chris Sievey but I do recall I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Check-out Desk.
This was Sievey's moment in the sun, as lead singer of a band called The Freshies.
Unfortunately for him, his fame was curtailed because their appearance on Top Of The Pops was scheduled for a Thursday when BBC staff were on strike.
The following week his tune had gone down in the charts and stardom eluded him.
Steve Sullivan's documentary chronicles the life of Sievey from his schoolboy dreams of being a singer-songwriter through taking on the papier-mache head of Frank Sidebottom to his untimely death.
Frank Sidebottom? Yes, the strange 80s character who appeared on TV shows and did comedy performances up and down the land was actually Chris Sievey.
Sidebottom made a place called Timperley famous (he is immortalised in a statue there) and even had his own football team in which he played with the aforementioned outsized head.
Sievey was a creative obsessive and created myriad routines for his alter-ego in a bid to attract attention.
In the early days, as with his bands, it made him no money but eventually the cash came rolling in and to keep up the pace of the showbiz demands he turned to drink.
His wasn't a story which I had previously known so I was gobsmacked at how many lives Sievey had touched, including famous ones such as Mark Radcliffe who had been in one of Sievey's bands and Johnny Vegas who had been in his circle.
But the most poignant words were from his ex-wife who tells with deep love of his eccentricities and sadness of his drift into alcoholism.
There are also key contributions from his children, including his youngest son Harry who tragically died in a car crash before the film was released.
It is a splendidly told story of a remarkable man and a papier-mache head which ended up taking the much-cherished limelight away from him.

Reasons to watch: A faithful biopic of a true life
Reasons to avoid: If you think Frank Sidebottom is annoying

Laughs: A couple of chuckles
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? Nine years after the death of Chris Sievey, there is still a Frank Sidebottom website selling t-shirts, stickers and badges.

The final word. Steve Sullivan: "I emailed Martin (Sievey's brother) about whether anyone had expressed interest in making a documentary about Chris. He emailed straight back and said, ‘Look I’ve just cleared his house, I’ve got a hundred boxes of his personal stuff and nowhere to put it and if you can just haul it away, you’d be doing me a favour.’  BFI

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