''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' is a 2004 British sex comedy film, written and directed by Andy Humphries. The film is about the sexual antics of a group of
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
delivery men in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and stars
Johnny Vegas
Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, overweight appearance, angry comedic rants, and us ...
and
Mackenzie Crook
Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in ''The Office'', Ragetti in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films, Orell in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', ...
.
''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' has been called one of the
worst films of all time.
Cast
*
Johnny Vegas
Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, overweight appearance, angry comedic rants, and us ...
as Dave
*
Mackenzie Crook
Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in ''The Office'', Ragetti in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films, Orell in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', ...
as Ferris
*
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...
as Jeremy
*Annette Bentley as Linda
*
Julia Davis
Julia Charlotte L. Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy ''Nighty Night'' (2004–2005) and the comedies ''Hunderby'' (2012–2015) and ' ...
as Shelley
*
Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis (born 17 February 1973) is an English actress best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy ''The Office'' (2001–2003).
She is also known for her roles as Hilda Spellman in the Netflix series '' The Chilling Adventur ...
as Ruth
*Evie Garratt as Joan's Mum
*Robert Harrison as Kevin
*
Nick Holder
Nick Holder (born 1969) is an underground hip-hop and house music deejay and producer from Toronto, Ontario.
Holder began DJing in the early 1980s, and soon became influenced by the Detroit techno scene and DJs such as Derrick May and Carl Cra ...
as Gordon
*
Dominic Coleman
Dominic Andrew Coleman (born 29 January 1970 in Solihull, Warwickshire) is a British actor. He went to secondary school at Tudor Grange Academy Solihull which then led him to train at Leeds University's Bretton Hall where he studied a BA (hons ...
as Tolly
*
Lee Tunbridge as blonde guy in group sex scene
*Barry Aird as Gherkin Man
*Joy Aldridge as Sauna Woman
*
Jeff Alexander
Jeff Alexander (born Myer Goodhue Alexander; July 2, 1910 – December 23, 1989) was an American conductor, arranger, and composer of film, radio and television scores.
Early years
Born in Seattle, Washington, Alexander began performing in ...
as Bloke
*
Adrian Chiles
Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both ''The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for foo ...
as Towel man
*Amerjit Deu as Doctor
*
Justin Edgar
Justin Edgar (born 18 August 1971) is a British film director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer.
Early life
Born in Handsworth, West Midlands, Handsworth, Birmingham, Edgar left school with no qualifications because he regularly played ...
as Chip Shop Customer
*Huss Garbiya as Beans
*Carol Harvey as Chip Shop Girl
*Alfie Hunter as Matthew
*Laurence Inman as Bored Bloke
*
Jenny Jay
Jenny Jay (born Jennifer Bolton on 18 November 1967 in Birmingham), is a British actress, who played Carmen in Carla Lane's television series '' Bread''. She has also appeared in such programmes as '' Behind The Bike Sheds'', ''The Bill'', '' KYTV ...
as Coma Woman/Helen
*Ceris Jones as Poppy's Brother
*
Helen Latham
Helen Latham (born 2 March 1976, in the UK) is a British actress. She is best known for playing Lucy Milligan in series 4 and 5 of the British TV drama ''Footballers' Wives'' and in series 1 and 2 of its spin-off '' Footballers' Wives: Extra Ti ...
as Chip Shop Girl
*
Kay Purcell
Kay Purcell (6 December 1963 – 23 December 2020) was an English actress. She was known for her roles as Cynthia Daggert in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2001–2002), Candice Smilie in the school-based drama series '' Waterloo Road'' (20 ...
as Gloria
*
Nicola Reynolds
Nicola Jane Reynolds (born 26 July 1972, Pontypridd) is a Cardiff-based Welsh actress.
Career
After appearing in the 1999 film ''Human Traffic,'' she appeared in a series of jobbing roles, including ''Clocking Off'' and '' High Hopes''. Reyno ...
as Poppy
*
Kate Robbins
Kate Elizabeth Robbins (born 21 August 1958) is an English actress, singer and songwriter. She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a top ten single on the UK Official Charts with "More Than in Love", while she was appearing in t ...
as Joan
*Angela Simpson as Vicky
*Nicholas Tennant as Phil
*Betty Trew as Katie
Critical reception
Critics disliked the film intensely. The film has a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 2.1/10.
James Christopher of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' called it "one of the two most nauseous films ever made". Writer
Antonia Quirke
Antonia Quirke is a British film critic. As well as writing on film for the ''Financial Times'' and a weekly column for the ''New Statesman'', she has presented regularly on ''The Film Programme'', '' Pick of the Week'', BBC Radio 4, as well as '' ...
, writing for the ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'', called it "mirthless, worthless, toothless, useless".
[Critics Pan "Worst Film Ever"](_blank)
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
, 23 February 2004. Retrieved 7 October 2013. Kevin O'Sullivan in the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' called it "one of the worst films ever made".
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote, "it's a film which isn't in the slightest bit funny or sexy, and is deeply depressing. It also diminishes the reputation of many excellent TV comics, who are made to look tawdry and naff up there on the big screen in an echoing cinema". Catherine Shoard, in a review of the film in ''
The Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings.
It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'', stated "It's hard to know what to say to this – it's like finding the right words at a nasty accident... ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' is probably the lewdest Brit-com since ''
Confessions of a Window Cleaner
''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Leach, p.132
Like the other films in the ''Confessions'' series; ''Confessions of a Pop Performer'', ''Confessions of a Driving Instructor'' and ''Con ...
'', and certainly the worst". Shoard also described the film as "Less a film than an appetite suppressant". Ben Davis in the ''
Morning Star
Morning Star, morning star, or Morningstar may refer to:
Astronomy
* Morning star, most commonly used as a name for the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise
** See also Venus in culture
* Morning star, a name for the star Siri ...
'' later included ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' on his list of "some of the year's worst films".
One of the few positive reviews for ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' came from Mark Adams in the ''
Sunday Mirror
The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...
'', who wrote that "Vegas and Crook are a sleazy dream-team and brilliantly cast as the soft-core spud men... After several pints and a curry it could be the lads' film of the year."
It was also controversial in that nearly £1 million of public money from the
National Lottery via the
UK Film Council
The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...
was used to fund the project.
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews FRSA (born 3 April 1947)[ANDREWS, Nigel John](_blank)
''Who's Who 2015'', A & C ...
in the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' criticised the use of lottery funding for the film.
Years after the film was released, ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' was still being described by film critics as an unusually bad film. Hostile critics include Peter Bradshaw of ''The Guardian'', and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
, who described the film as "absolutely, indescribably horrible, vulgar, stupid, tawdry, depressing, embarrassing, filthy, vile, stinky, repugnant, slimy, unclean, nasty, degenerative and mind-numbing". The ''
'' stated that the film was "a strong contender for the title of worst film of all time". Donald Clarke of ''
'' stated that "''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' attracted some of the worst reviews in living memory". The film magazine ''
'' placed it at no. 7 in its list of "The 50 Worst Movies Ever".