Goodbye Charlie Bright (and with it all integrity)

Goodbye Charlie Bright. A top notch heartwarming British cult film by Nick Love. Focusing on the volatile relationship between Charlie (Paul Nicholls) and Justin (Roland Manookian), this 2001 film is bright and brash as the early years under New Labour seemed to be - Happy-go-lucky, heartwarming and tender despite being set in a South London sink estate. It's one of my favourite films ever. Love everything about it - the British talent, the clobber (all Lacoste polos, RL and Hackett) and the storyline. However it's integrity has been hijacked. And I'll explain why...

This is the first dvd cover - showing the lads laughing on together against the bright background. Really is a nice true image of the contents of what you're buying...

However even though the film had decent reviews it remained a cult, almost underground, flick. So in 2005, on the back of Nick Love's second, and more commercially successful Football Factory, the DVD was repackaged to more of a FF style red case and text. You can't really blame Love or the publishers, and to be honest it was possibly a good thing, as it re-introduced the film into the mainstream.

BUT I will not allow this. Yet another repackaging and an appalling one. Choosing to focus on who and what is essentially a secondary character, merely an extra - none other than secondary-school top boys favourite Danny Dyer.

He's only in Charlie Bright for approximately 10 minutes (if that) and this is a shameless display of trying to cash in on his commerciallity - even though the guy is a sell out, two dimensional and a fucking waste of space. The photo isn't even from the film and quite similar, if not the same as, a repackaging of another film he was a part timer in - Borstal Boy. What's next? Mean Machine? The Business? A real, real disappointment to me. But I'll laugh when all the Dyer wannabe's are heartbroken when they actually buy the film from the bargain section from HMV and discover he isn't fucking in it. Hah.