Greatest Days film review — a Take That musical with no Take That

Not every intellectual property spanning multiple platforms is a superhero. There is also Greatest Days, the film adaptation of the jukebox musical built around the tunes of veteran British boy band Take That. The starting point for the project dates back to 2017 and a BBC reality TV show, Let It Shine, which provided the cast for what became a UK stage hit, The Band. The retitled production can now be seen in venues including the Excellence-class P&O cruise ship Arvia, and in the version offered by this movie: industrially chipper with bittersweet edges.

The setting is then and now. In prehistoric 1993, a quintet of teenage girls in northern small town Clitheroe worship a fictional pop group whose songbook happens to echo that of Take That. Now, adulthood has whittled the gang down to one: Rachel (Aisling Bea), a perky children’s nurse who still yearns for her long-lost pals. A reunion, you say? Well, now you mention it . . . 

A Take That musical with no Take That is smarter than it sounds. The absence of the real-life pin-ups frees the story up for the rich stuff of female friendship. But writer Tim Firth has a tin ear for the detail: 1990s high street girls mining jumble sales for outfits to see their idols is just one unlikely moment.

Onstage, such critical nitpicking would be crushed under the showmanship. Here, though, director Coky Giedroyc puts the story on screen with a staccato flatness that carries the sense of a chore. As every karaoke singer knows, you don’t have to hit every note. But it helps to sound like you like the song.

★★☆☆☆

In UK cinemas from June 16