Mindhorn
- IMDb link: 4799064
- IMDb rating: 6.3 (14,454 votes)
- Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Thriller, Mystery
- Director: Julian Barratt, Sean Foley, Sean Foley
- Cast: Simon Farnaby, Essie Davis, Steve Coogan and others
- Release date: 5 May 2017
- Release year: 2016
- Runtime: 89 minutes
- Country: United Kingdom, France, United States
- Keywords: character name as title, man wears a wig, washed up star, action figure, reference to benedict cumberbatch, actor as protagonist, criminal, talking to oneself, talking to oneself in a mirror, reference to john lennon
Plot:
Richard Thorncroft is a has-been British television actor who used to be famous in the late 1980s for playing the charismatic title character in the Isle of Man detective show Mindhorn, a character with a robotic eye that can literally "see the truth". Unfortunately, after becoming a little too pompous and arrogant, Richard ends up insulting the Isle of Man and his fellow cast members on the Wogan chat-show, including his on-screen and real-life love interest Patricia Deville (Essie Davies), his stuntman (Simon Farnaby), and bit-part co-star Peter Easterman (Steve Coogan). He decides to leave to try and make it big in Hollywood, but twenty-five years later he's balding in a flat in North London and has recently been replaced for an orthopaedic sock advertisement by John Nettles, much to his chagrin. He is even more jealous that Easterman now fronts a long-running spin-off show which has far eclipsed the success of Mindhorn. Richard has an unexpected opportunity to reignite his career though when a delusional criminal calling himself "The Kestrel" (Russell Tovey) starts terrorizing the Isle of Man and, having an extremely unhealthy obsession with the show, demands to talk only to Mindhorn. Relishing a chance for publicity, Richard dons his turtleneck and robot eye, aggravates the police with his method acting, tries to rekindle his old romance with Patricia, and also attempts to sign a Mindhorn DVD deal with Eastman. With his 1980s political incorrectness, solo musical single, useless cyborg eyepatch, and cheesy one-liners, Mindhorn is here to bring an apocalypse of justice. It's truth time.