Take It Or Leave It, originally released in 1981, is the highly entertaining and brilliantly nostalgic story of how Madness, one of the most successful and enduring British bands of all time, originally got together.
Filmed after Madness enjoyed a bunch of Top 10 singles, endearing themselves to the British public with the humour of their iconic music videos, the film travels back in time, chronicling how seven mates living in 1970s Camden Town formed a band. It details the jobs they left behind, the line-up changes, the rows, the laughs, and how their distinctive ska-pop ‘Nutty Sound’ evolved.
Featuring classic songs including One Step Beyond, Night Boat to Cairo and Embarrassment.
Credits
UK 1981
86 min
Certificate 12A
Dir Dave Robinson
With Graham McPherson (Suggs), Mark Bedford (Bedders), Lee Thompson (El Thommo), Carl Smyth (Chas Smash), Dan Woodgate (Woody), Chris Foreman (Chrissy Boy) and Mike Barson (Barzo)
Screenings
Previews
September
30 September
BFI Southbank, London (Restoration premiere)
October
1 October
Abbeygate Cinema, Bury St Edmunds
Broadway Letchworth
The Chiswick Cinema
Connaught Cinema, Worthing
Kings Cinema, Newmarket
The Light Cinemas
Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool
Picturehouse Cinemas
The Station Cinema, Richmond
Welwyn Garden City Cinema
2 October
BEAM Hertford
11 October
Electric Picture House, Wotton
12 October
The Riverside, Woodbridge
20 October
The Exchange, Twickenham
28 October
The Plaza, Stockport
November
3 November
Corn Exchange, Wallingford
More screenings to be confirmed.