Seaside Special

This richly-observed documentary by Jens Meurer captures the eccentricity and independence of Cromer, the rebel edge of England. Using the end of the pier show to hold together its interweaved biographical stories, it provides an emotional, sometimes weird survey of the politics of leaving the EU, spliced together with the production of a summertime special.

Set during those stormy intemperate years within the Conservative Party, we see the meteoric rise of the populist Right. But far from being laden with dreary depictions of those now long-forgotten (or bitterly remembered) conflicts around Brexit, it shows how ordinary people in a far from ordinary location simply manage to get on and get by.

You could perhaps take away from the documentary a sense of social fracture, but you would be wrong, it is filled with love. From a heartbroken lead singer hoping to be recalled for another season, to the character of John Lee - an arch-Brexiteer and local fisherman who dreams of independence but reflects that he is the last of his line; no one in his family wishes to continue in the fishing business.

Some of the cast are my friends, many are acquaintances and, poignantly, two of the cast have since sadly died. Their ghosts stay with you. But so too do those who leave North Norfolk to make a new life in Europe. Leaving a strange mix of hope and sorrow for those of us who watched this, the ones left behind, seated (when I watched it) in the very theatre it was filmed in. It is also laugh out loud funny.

In the end though, this wonderful film is about the jobbing end of show business, love, unity, and the things that bind us together, and it points to several possible futures for its cast and for those watching - it will be up to us which path we choose now the storm has passed over.