Lucky Break – 2001 | 98 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Following up a global smash like The Full Monty isn’t easy, but after a few years rest, director Peter Cattaneo has finally returned with Lucky Break, an Ealing-style comedy that has much in common with its predecessor.

After a bungled robbery, Jimmy Hands (James Nesbitt) and long-standing accomplice Rudy (Lennie James) find themselves reunited in HM Prison Long Rudford. Something strange is going on amongst the hardened men of B wing; they’re going soft. The inmates are putting on costumes and wigs and taking singing and dancing lessons. They’ve become thespians, and ingratiated themselves with the governor (Christopher Plummer) for an awfully amateurish production of his self-penned musical about Admiral Nelson, Nelson – The Musical.

But all is not what is seems, behind the theatrical posturing lies an elaborate escape plan. Ringleaders Jimmy and Rudy have come up with what they consider a watertight scheme to coast their way to freedom. But all is not plain sailing when a romance blossoms behind prison bars. between Jimmy and Prison Support Officer Annabel Sweep (Olivia Williams), and Head of Prison Security Perry (Ron Cook) smells something fishy. Will it be curtains for Jimmy and his gang, or will they pull off the performance of their lives?