Dennis Skinner: Nature of the Beast

[Nature of the Beast] is a very agreeable, nuts-and-bolts documentary.

Won't win the 85-year-old Derbyshire native any new fans, but is nevertheless an absorbing portrait of "the Beast of Bolsover".

Dennis Skinner is one of our most colourful and principled MPs... A shame, then, that the Beast of Bolsover comes across as either smug or boring for much of this hagiographic documentary.

The veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner... emerges as a far more complex and sympathetic figure in this documentary than he appears when he is haranguing Tories and talking class warfare during House of Commons debates.

Bland visuals and a basic set-up leaves it up to Skinner to keep us interested, and to be fair he is a likeable, grounded, relentlessly optimistic and funny individual ...

Draper's film is at its most tender when it shows Skinner's love of nature: a figure of almost Buddha-like serenity as he contemplates a tree.

Though it isn't perfect, it's the right time for this film. The UK is more divided than ever and we need to be reminded that there are people in Government who care about the working people.

As panegyrics go, however, it's a creditable piece of work -- calm, attentive and varied.

Affectionate yet meandering, it lingers too long on minutiae. Still, Skinner is a funny, fascinating man, explored here with fervency.