Mindhorn

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. —Edward Hunter