Ciao Baby: `The Full Monty' overkill

When The Full Monty appeared in cinemas last summer, this slight tale of six unemployed men from Sheffield resorting to striptease to earn their crust seemed not to have its sights set on anything other than that peculiarly British ambition, modest success. Even when the film began to emulate the international success of that other British triumph, Four Weddings and a Funeral, we film-goers back in Blighty thought we could rest easy in the knowledge that we had done our bit for the domestic film industry.

How wrong we were. At least the all-out marketing campaigns that fuelled those earlier British successes abroad left us back home in peace. But not content with conquering the world - reportedly to the tune of $180m - and garnering a clutch of Oscar nominations, The Full Monty continues to wage a war of attrition on the home front.

For several months now, huge chunks of the press have been given over to advertisements featuring Full Monty cast members exhorting the few among us who haven't seen the film to do so immediately. Day after day, we're chided by this cultural press gang, scorned for not doing our cinema- going duty. Despite the film's ultimate coyness, perhaps The Full Monty's marketing outfit haven't learnt the cardinal rule of striptease: if you've got it, you don't necessarily have to flaunt it.

Mike Higgins