The Harry Hill Movie

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If the 90 per cent empty auditorium in which I saw this film earlier this week is any guide, TV comic Harry Hill has not struck gold, but something much smellier, with his graduation to the big screen.

Maybe it's Marmite, for people either love or hate his brand of comedy. As with Marmite, if you don't have the taste for it, it's not easily acquired, and it won't be acquired here.

Like Russ Abbot and Freddie Starr, before him, Hill revels in the adjective 'madcap', and there is certainly a strong madcap element to this tale of the ever-genial Harry and his nan (an exceedingly game Julie Walters) taking their apparently terminally-ill hamster (in fact, a cuddly toy) to Blackpool.

On the way they run into Jim Broadbent, playing a three-armed female cleaner in a nuclear power station, and Sheridan Smith, who plays the princess in a nautical tribe of shell people. Meanwhile, they are pursued by two villains dispatched by Harry's evil identical twin Otto (Matt Lucas).

Hill has attracted some top-notch British talent. Whether they read the script first is open to question.

Otto is cross because he was given up for adoption to a group of Alsatians in Kettering, and from that you get a hint of the kind of humour that prevails.

It's surreal, for sure, but the kind of surrealism that makes you sink lower and lower in your seat, wondering whether to make a dash for the exit.

If you do sit it out, though, there's some enjoyment to be had in spotting the comedy references - to The Goodies, The Lavender Hill Mob, even Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

But I'm afraid that serves mainly to remind us what good comedy is, and what this isn't.

The Harry Hill Movie - review

Exactly what you'd expect, which is either good or bad depending on your Hill position. It seems churlish to criticise it for being rubbish when being rubbish is the whole point.

Screenplay isn't so much offbeat as utterly feeble

Harry Hill's big screen debut is a bit of a misfire.

Harry Hill: The Movie - Review

Too many ideas that might look zany and original on paper actually seem increasingly futile, even desperate.

The Harry Hill Movie - review

After a zippy opening 15 minutes, the duff jokes and spoofs accumulate and everyone starts to look stranded on screen.

Harry Hill Movie - Review

There's not enough here to sustain 88 minutes, too many of the jokes fall flat and the image of Julie Walters rapping isn't one you'll be able to shift soon. But the set-piece gags are memorable.

Video: Mark Kermode reviews The Harry Hill Movie

Mark Kermode reviews The Harry Hill Movie. He says he didn't laugh once.

Harry Hill poses for spoof 'at home' Hello photoshoot

Harry Hill poses in his reindeer slippers and smoking jacket 'at home' in a spoof photoshoot for a glossy magazine.

Julie Walters on playing Harry Hill's nan in new film

Playing the role was great fun but Julie Walters, mum to Maisie, 25, says she is in no rush to become a grandmother in real life.