Toryboy the Movie

John Walsh is unanimously accepted by Middlesborough's Conservative party as their ideal candidate for the 2010 General Election to go up against the incumbent Labour party MP who's held the seat for 30 years. The fact that the local party accepts a young middle class man from England's south - a film-maker and a self-confessed "Ginger" to boot - to run in a town that's utterly down to earth and resolutely working-class frankly smacks of desperation but Walsh accepts the challenge and sets to work.

Whether Walsh wants to run as an MP because he genuinely wants to help the people or because he thinks it's a great opportunity to make a film is not entirely clear but he quickly establishes that he's committed, charismatic and prepared to do the work and, whatever your political stripes, you embrace the film as he makes the round of paper shops and old ladies tea-parties in the desperate hope of knocking the incumbent of his perch.

In a scenario that reminds you of Michael Moore's Roger & Me Walsh tries desperately to locate his nemesis the incumbent - a politician who never answers his phone, allegedly hangs out in Paris, has a ruffian for a son and, when we finally get to see him, is revealed as a man with a staggeringly bad set of teeth. Toryboy is certainly an enjoyable ride and, even if your sympathies are on the socialist side of the fence, you find yourself desperately wanting the man to win even though the fact that the same few locals appear rather too often in the footage is frankly worrying.