Brian And Charles
SPOILER WAENING THE VIEWING GUIDE
A deep dive into the must-see moments from a big new release
WE’LL COME RIGHT out with it: Brian And Charles is the feel-good film of the year. The very funny, very sweet British buddy comedy, directed by Jim Archer and written by Chris Hayward and star David Earl — and inspired by their 2017 short — has it all: sci-fi (well, a homemade robot called Charles), action (specifically: cabbage guns) and romance (that bit’s pretty traditional, at least). Here, Earl tells us what the hell he was playing at.
REFINING BRIAN
Loosely, Earl’s Brian is Brian Gittins, the character he’s played on stage and screen for years, often for Ricky Gervais in the likes of After Life. Here, though, he went for something sweeter. “We just wanted to make him more likable,” he says. “I’ve got three boys, and two of them are under seven. I’ve been watching lots of Pixar and Disney and we wanted to try to do our version of that. We didn’t want any swear words. We wanted something accessible for the whole family.” As long as the whole family is up for an insane comedy about an eccentric robot made out of a mangled mannequin and a washing machine.