This is Spinal Tap is the funniest film ever made – don’t ruin it with it a sequel

The original This Is Spinal Tap was unimpeachable, a hilarious spoof of a bunch of has-been rockers that simply cannot be bettered. Superfan Jim White is aghast at the idea of a follow-up film with cameos from Paul McCartney and Elton John

In the current era, when almost everything in cinema is too long and too flabby, This Is Spinal Tap is a lesson in rigour (Authorised Spinal Tap LLC/Shutterstock)

There can only be one response to the news that legendary director Rob Reiner is planning a sequel to mark the 40th anniversary of his movie This Is Spinal Tap: please don’t.

From the moment it was released in 1984, it was clear this film was something special – and over the years it has only grown in stature. Regularly appearing in authoritative lists of the all-time top 100 movies, in my opinion there can be no doubt: the Tap is the funniest film ever made.

I admit this is probably not the sort of confession to be made in company, but I have watched the story of the hapless English heavy metal band attempting to make it in the US more than 50 times. Every time I sit down in front of it (and believe me, that is more often than is healthy) I discover something new in its comedy.