Director: Kim Hopkins

Faded glamour and thwarted hope in Hopkins’ documentary portrait of Dene Michael, last standing member of much-maligned novelty band Black Lace. The title of course is taken from the band’s biggest hit ‘Agadoo’. Dene was a session musician who appeared on their early records but officially joined the band in 1985 after the departure of member Colin Routh. Dene’s remaining bandmate, singer Alan Barton, left the band in 1987 to join Smokey, leaving him the sole carrier of the Black Lace flame. Since then, Michael has toured the club circuit playing to dwindling crowds. He lives with his adored and spirited eighty-nine-year-old mum Anne, and his encouraging girlfriend and manager Hayley. The film transforms into a road movie when Dene decides to take Anne to the Costa del Sol where the band played a residency, and where Anne has happy memories of a family holiday. As Dene and Hayley attempt to keep the show on the road, even deploying, tragically, AI to write a new Black Lace song, he begins to resent his legacy and dreams of relaunching himself as a serious balladeer. Director Hopkins is good on the lost grandeur of the working-class club scene with its attendant warmth and camaraderie. It feels slightly underpowered, and Hopkins pushes the pathos button too much in the last stretch, but Dene, Hayley and Anne are an appealing trio.

David Willoughby

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