FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS is a comedy drama that may become the ultimate British feel-good movie
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS is a comedy drama that may become the ultimate British feel-good movie – The Full Monty, but with songs, sea and sou’westers. Based on a slightly fictionalised version of real events, it’s set in Port Isaac on the beautiful north Cornish coast and has stunning views of harbour and sea. Renamed as Portwenn, the small working fishing port can also be seen on ITV as the location for the Doc Martin series.
A group of singing fishermen from Port Isaac – the FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS – have a reputation locally for their rousing renditions of traditional songs and shanties. When a group of trendy record company executives arrive from London for a stag weekend, the fishermen’s lives are suddenly changed.
As a joke, brash boss Troy (Noel Clarke with a strange American accent) orders unwitting Danny (Daniel Mays) to get the group a recording deal with a major label or lose his job. Not realising he’s been had, Danny perseveres, first to overcome the men’s disbelief, then their hostility – and finally the incredulity of record companies. Progress is slow, so he stays on in Port Isaac to do a deal with the group after his colleagues return to London.
Then Port Isaac weaves its magic on the fish-out-of-water outsider. Danny falls in love with lovely, sweet-natured single-mother Alwyn (Tuppence Middleton), who just happens also to be the daughter of the fisherman most opposed to a record deal (James Purefoy). Danny makes it his mission to get that record deal.
