The Full Monty: How Disney’s new sequel series deals with austerity

Eight-episode sequel to the acclaimed 1997 film is released on Disney this week

Released in 1997, Peter Cataneo’s The Full Monty told the story of six men who decide to be strippers – but it was also about so much more.

The film, set in Sheffield during the 1990s, was celebrated for its exploration of a number of social issues, including depression, body image and unemployment.

On Wednesday 14 June, a sequel series arrives on Disney+ in the UK (and Hulu in the US). Set 25 years after the original film, The Full Monty (2023) sees its characters contend with a Britain that has changed significantly over the years.

A number of the show’s stars have spoken out about what fans can expect from the series’ exploration of Conservative-driven austerity.

Asked if the political thrust of the original film had been retained for the sequel, star Robert Carlyle said: “Absolutely. In that respect, it’s exactly the same. And congratulations to Disney for going along with that. You cannot separate politics from The Full Monty. It’s impossible.”

He continued: “These men, 25 years on, have lived through what everybody in this country has lived through, 25 years, near enough, of austerity. Their whole being has been chipped away, the whole infrastructure of the country has been chipped away. And that’s there for sure.”

The first episode of the series is titled “Levelling Up”, a reference to the policy of that name first laid out in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto. The policy ostensibly aims to reduce economic inequality across different regions of the UK.

Robert Carlyle in ‘The Full Monty' (Disney)

However, in The Full Monty, the ruinous effects of prolonged austerity come under the microscope, and the vision of modern-day Sheffield is far from rosy.

The working men’s club that featured prominntly in the original film is seen boarded up. In a review of the series for The Telegraph, Michael Hogan wrote: “The surprise box-office hit was always politically charged, tracing as it did the fallout from the deindustrialisation of Sheffield, and this eight-part sequel wears its politics on its sleeve too.

“The issues will be all too recognisable, especially to those in neglected communities. If the optimism of the original, written at the tail end of John Major’s Conservative government, and released during Blair’s Labour one, has gone, that’s the point: this is a sobering reminder of how far we haven’t come.”

The Full Monty is out on Disney+ today.