Mother’s Pride – If there was ever a film where you could say you’ve seen it, purely based on just seeing the trailer, THIS is it… although despite it drifting through my brain several times, as I watch a lot of films, I must’ve fallen into a coma when the plot point about a beer competition comes up, since it was made to look like a film about Morris Dancing… which actually barely features.
Yes, with no expense spent on the script, this year’s “It’s a British film but it’s not The Full Monty” is here… although it could’ve come up as last year’s such movie, given that the trailer was first shown last autumn, for a while, before the film was pulled and delayed until the Spring, for some unknown reason.
There’s the modern issue of pubs closing, although as is the same with nightclubs, part of this is due to the youth of today NOT DRINKING ALCOHOL! This is technically a GOOD thing!
Still, for the purposes of the plot, it means that Mick’s (Martin Clunes – Wuthering Heights) pub, The Drovers Arms, might be next, since all the drinkers in this Turdtown now go to the pub across the road, part of a chain run by posh, smarmy twat, Pritchard (Luke Treadaway – The Serial Killer’s Wife), who may as well be wearing a hat that’s labelled “POSH, SMARMY TWAT!”
And a Turdtown doesn’t mean the place is shit, since Somerset looks lovely, but as is highlighted on the amusing Turdtowns Youtube Channel, so much of the town is closed and job prospects are extremely limited. It’s basically somewhere you’d generally have to leave if you wanted some form of gainful employment.
Returning to the fold is once successful pop star who’s struggling to write a new hit, Cal (Jonno Davies – who played the monkey Robbie Williams in Better Man), who gets a cab to return home, and here’s where we get a bit of smutty humour to ensure a 12-certificate, because the cabbie is Dawn (Lola-Rose Maxwell), who recognises him as a girl he played Spin the Bottle with when they were 13, to which she adds, “I should’ve shagged you when I had the chance”.
She states she’s “pansexual”, adding, “which means I’m up for anything”. No, it’s just a made-up word. It’s the same as “bisexual”, a Latin word dating back to 832AD, which means “Not picky”.
Then, we get the most unlikely piece of writing ever… when Jonno quickly shoves a tenner in Dawn’s hand because he’d rather leave the cab now and just walk all the way into town. Yes, a man turning down sex. THIS NEVER HAPPENS.
Cal also bumps into his ex, Abi (Gabriella Wilde – Wonder Woman 1984), a teacher who never left, despite absolutely sod all happening in this place. And, of course, she’s now dating Pritchard.
The Full Monty reference from earlier, also extends to the inclusion of Mark Addy, playing Mark Addy, but who is called Paxman, because he’s knowledgeable about crossword puzzles. Unlike the idiot on TV.
So, can the pub become a “micro-brewery”, win the competition and stop from going under? What do you think? Yes, it’s more about the journey than the destination, but the journey is a pothole-infested road full of uninspired writing and tired ideas with old clichés thrown in.
On the plus side, there’s two classic tunes in Boney M’s Daddy Cool and Ottawan’s D.I.S.C.O., and at 93 minutes, the film is shorter than The Bride.
As an aside, since Mick’s raison d’être is his fridged wife, he talks about when him and the missus were young, he was 25, and how it cost just £8 to get into Glastonbury, as well as how Van Morrison was top of the bill. Sounds like a decent gig! And unlike most modern music, someone I’ve heard of!
Google tells me Van Morrison headlined there in 1982, 1987 and 1989, albeit the first of those was on his own. Plus, 1982’s ticket cost was £8, which means the scriptwriters did actually include some facts in this film. And that would make Martin Clunes’ character as having been born in 1957. Clunes was born in 1961, so not far off.
And he looks a lot more similar to Jeremy Vine, than that of Huw Edwards, as per the recent Channel 5 drama teaser.
Oh, and add in an awful bee swarm scene where they’re clearly badly-CGI’d onto the screen; and if a bunch of Morris dancers tried to stop debt collectors from going about their business, they’d just call the police before getting on with their job. They wouldn’t just run off.
Plus, I saw someone commented on IMDB, “James Buckley is amazing!” – No. He’s barely mid, after the dizzy heights of The Inbetweeners.
Overall, Mother’s Pride is like a Sunday afternoon TV movie, but with some post-watershed smut in it, to get it onto the cinema screen. I wouldn’t be surprised if a PG-rated version is made for the film to fulfil its eventual purpose, similar to how most of Uncle Buck’s opening scene is cut out, since most of the rest of it is fine for daytime TV.
And a couple of scenes which make no sense, but which i’ll put behind a spoiler header because they’re… well, plot spoilers… not that there’s much of a plot.
NOTE: There’s something during the first part of the credits, and a brief mid-credits scene, but all so inconsequential that I can’t even be bothered making a video about it:
I did have an odd situation in this auditorium, however. Following the seatmap shown, with the row numbers going from left to right, I’d booked C5, when there was no-one else in the room. One person later booked in for row E, two for row F, then one at the back in row I.
As it turns out, the row I space is a broken seat, so you can cancel that one, but the two people for row F never turned up, BUT… after I’d booked C5, at some point before the screening, three people booked C6, C7 and C8! Who in the world of fuck does that in a near-empty room? Are you fucking insane? At the very least, you could’ve gone for those seats in row D… which is where I ended up moving to, since column 5 is the central one… well, technically, the centre of the screen in that room is between columns 5 and 6, but you can take your choice on those.
Still, why do you insist on trying to invade someone’s personal space like that? And yes, when I got in there, they were already sat down, so I just went to row D. I saw the old woman in C6 had draped her cardy on the C5 seat. Shame I didn’t go in there and sit on it. How in the world of fuck do these morons get on in life?!
Mother’s Pride is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 93 minutes
Release date: March 6th 2026
Studio: Entertainment Film Distributors
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Rating: 2/10
Director: Nick Moorcroft
Producer: James Spring
Screenplay: Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft
Music: Simon Boswell
Cast:
Cal: Jonno Davies
Mick: Martin Clunes
Paxman: Mark Addy
Abi: Gabriella Wilde
Pritchard: Luke Treadaway
Edith: Josie Lawrence
Dawn: Lola-Rose Maxwell
Jeremy: Miles Jupp
Amy: Emily Lloyd-Saini
Wilf: Karl Collins
Jim the Policeman: Richard Glover
David: Jack Loy
Harry: Stephen Leask
Tony: Robert MacPherson
Romy: Lana Moorcroft
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.