Men Up

Wow ! What a sensitive subject mixed with breast cancer, diabetes, the tribulations of being gay, suicide and a VHS video player that expires. Swansea, The Gower, Morriston Hospital adds a poignancy to the plot especially as my family roamed from the Rhondda.

The cast were well balanced and it was fantastic not to be swamped by the star syndrome. Meurig played by Iwan Rheon just about stole it with his sensitivity, vulnerability and imitation of a boy who went up a mountain as a boy and came down as a man.

The surprising use of humour without being smutty was the master stroke. ( Oops ...see it's almost impossible to avoid double entendres ). The variety of outcomes for the not famous five was very different and yet believable. A great body of work from writer Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way.

Modest Brit-dramedy "Men Up" is the true tale of Pfizer's first clinical trial of what would become the revolutionary Viagra - held in 1994 by Dr Aneurin Barnard (supported by nurse Joanna Page) at Swansea's Morriston Hospital, focussed on a group of men with diabetes related impotency (inc Iwan Rheon, Paul Rhys, Steffan Rhodri, Mark Lewis Jobes & Phaldut Sharma). The performances are decent, while director Ashely Way & writer Matthew Barry keep the tone light & the drama lukewarm as the group bonds while the pill gives clues to the impacts it'll have on their lives and their partners (inc Alexandria Roach, Alexandria Riley & Nathan Sussex). Mild but passable fare.

Swansea is chosen as the first location for trials of Viagra, a new medication designed to combat male impotence. The men involved in the trial form an unlikely friendship.

Well this was a real bolt out of the blue, a reminder if exactly what The BBC is capable of, as though it came from a time where The Beeb truly was delivering first class, pioneering drama.

It's very funny, it's very moving, not so much a taboo subject now as it would have been back in the 90's, but still a very sensitive area for many men.

Pete and Alice's story was very sad, Meurig's story was perhaps the highlight for me.

Chewed up tapes from Blockbuster, M People, Blur, they brought back 1994 as if it were yesterday. It was a terrific production, credit to the team involved.

I know I'm biased, hailing from this great City, but Swansea looks awesome, they picked some great locations for filming.

What can you say about the cast, phenomenal performances, Paul Rhys, Iwan Rheon, Alexandra Roach, all of them.

Swansea's finest, Joanna Page, what can I say, nothing but sheer adoration, talk about sincere, genuine and wonderful.

9/10.

I can imagine the writers of this sittng in a meeting wondering what they can produce as an excuse to show couples engaged in sexual activity. The outcome? Men up, A one off (Thank god) drama about the discovery of the drug called viagra. This break through may have been a game changer for many long suffering men, but as a drama it was about as relavent as news that churchill lost the election after the war. Had it concentrated more about the process of the discovery and less about the patiants, even if it were to have just cut out the bonking in the bedroom scenes, it might have worked better. But the writers were only interested in something that would show as much titilation as possible thus failing to produce something that would qualify as being something intelegent.

How refreshing it is to watch a program set outside London and not be distracted by fake accents or characters shoehorned in to the script.

A well put together cast with a range of threads running through the main narrative. The film isn't going to break any records but it tells an interesting story from different points of view. It doesn't try to be anything it's not by going over the top with the storylines or time-period references.

The story itself is one that deserves to be told and the film is sympathetic to the feelings of people that would have taken part in the real life trials.

An enjoyable watch, which should be praised for concentrating on telling the story.