Men Up

Since the huge success of The Full Monty in 1997 Britain has turned to a number of feelgood tales of underdog battlers having their moment of unity and collectively overcoming odds.

Brassed Off, Calendar Girls, Bend it Like Beckham, Military Wives…. the latest is Men Up, a 2023 film about the origins of Viagra. Yep.

Inspired by true events, the story is set in the fairly chilly city of Swansea, Wales in 1994, a time of Tony Blair, Tovill & Dean and The Vicar of Dibley.

While the issue seems commonplace and solvable in 2024, thirty years ago some men were so distressed they took desperate, tragic steps.

40 year old Meurig (Iwan Rheon) is living with the stigma of impotence and it is quietly imploding his marriage to Ffion (Alexandra Roach), who has recently undergone a double mastectomy. She is convinced he is unable to love her. While this isn’t the case, Meurig is hopeless at articulating his feelings.

When he learns of a trial for a new pill by Pfizer at his local hospital, Meurig is dead keen to make the cut. But participants won’t know if they are given the real deal or a placebo.

Four other key characters join the trial. Peetham (Phaldut Sharma) whose wife begins to sell sex toys to her friends (as if to rub salt in the wound); loner Colin (Steffan Rhodri) who has struck up a phone friendship with a stranger but doesn’t have the courage to meet in person for fear of disappointing her; laborer Eddie (Mark Lewis Jones); and discreet gay man Tommy (Paul Rhys) who suggests an open relationship so his partner can have sex with someone else.

Of these other participants it is Tommy who is the most interesting, because the trial only welcomes heterosexual men. Desperate to participate, and not wanting to jeopardise the truthfulness required, he is desperate to keep his sexuality private.

But the story largely pivots around Meurig who learns that his impotency is linked to his diabetes.

“What was I suppseed to say? I was ashamed…This isn’t suppsoed to happen to men my age. I didn’t know what to do,” he tells Ffion.

Through the trial the 5 men bond over the discovery they are not alone, clinking beer jugs at the local pub and sharing stories like they are at a journey to manhood campfire.

There are some amusing tactics such as “talking” to your own penis and making preparations for the perfect big night with dinner and a VHS video rental. You get the drift…

Iwan Rheon, who is always watchable in shows such as Misfits, Game of Thrones and Vicious, perfectly plays the sad sack husband while Mark Lewis Jones, whose long list of credits includes Baby Reindeer, Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, The Crown, Outlander, is suitably boisterous as the working class bloke too proud to show his vulnerability.

Throughout Men Up you are rooting for the boys to have a breakthrough moment and do it for the team. Can’t argue with that.

Men Up screens Thursday June 27 on BritBox.