CINEMA: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Well, hit me with your rhythm stick, it’s that cheeky chappie Ian Dury come back to life to tell his story of triumph over tragedy, of chirpy rhymes and catchy rhythms overcoming disability and despair.

Ian Dury (a tour de force performance from the criminally under-appreciated Andy Serkis) was the lead singer of 70s and 80s chart topping band The Blockheads – and a more unlikely pop hero you’re never likely to meet. As a child Ian was struck down with polio that left him partially paralysed, but that didn’t stop him appearing on stage wearing a calliper and wielding his stick like some demented conductor leading his unruly mob of a band – because the Blockheads were unruly, and ill-disciplined and occasionally prone to violent outbursts. But then, so too was Ian, whose lust for life was fuelled by his desire never to let his disability hold him back or stop him from tasting all the world had to offer.

This hunger was strongly influenced by his childhood, growing up in a home for disabled children where he had been told he was a loser, a cripple who would never achieve anything. Ian’s wife Betty (Olivia Williams) understood this dark need that drove him, although it cost them their marriage and was also a deciding factor in the split between Ian and his young girlfriend Denise (Naomie Harris), while for his son Baxter (Bill Milner) it led to a rather demented, if not thoroughly entertaining, upbringing.

This is a story so full of human passion and laughter, sadness, mayhem and music, it really doesn’t need any ruffles or curls or artistic ornamentation to hold your interest, but director Mat Whitecross has shot the story in a surreal, hyper-realistic style where, for Ian at least, all the world is a stage on which to perform.

Although the stylistic hiccups of animated sequences are unnecessary, thankfully they don’t take away from Serkis’s performance, making Ian Dury come to life right in front of your eyes with every tic, every mannerism in place. It’s also good to see that Dury’s excesses have not been glossed over here, so you get a chance to build up a picture of just how complex this man was.

Best of all are the musical sequences with Serkis doing the honours on the vocal front. Although the film may have worked better as a straight retelling of the Ian Dury story, don’t let that put you off going to see a highly entertaining musical meander down memory lane with the original Billericay Dickie – and by God, he’s doing very well.