The Fruit Machine

Eddie (Charles) is a chubby 17-year old dreamer who loves scoffing chocs and watching old movies with his blowsy mum. Dad thinks he's a nancy boy, so when his mate Michael (Forsyth) calls for help the two scousers take off in search of adventure, and find it in a nightclub called 'The Fruit Machine', presided over by Annabelle (Coltrane, marvellous), an outsize drag queen whom they witness receiving too close a shave from a sicko called Echo (Payne). Running for their lives, the pair fall in with an opera singer (Stevens) and his agent (Higgins), who takes them to Brighton. Michael pays for their fares by horizontally dancing with both of them. Eddie remains oblivious to all this - he's too involved with a dripping dolphin man (Norgaard) who keeps appearing in front of him...Saville films Frank Clarke's script in a mishmash of styles, and the pace sometimes flags. But what the hell, it's as camp as Christmas, and if it rarely hits the jackpot, playing along with it is wildly enjoyable.