‘Word of mouth hit’ Irish movie now streaming at home for free

Despite competing with Hollywood films like A Minecraft Movie and Sinners, this Irish comedy found an audience in cinemas.

Now accessible on the RTÉ Player, the mockumentary movie is based on the cult favourite series Fran, which aired on Setanta Sports and TV3 from 2009 to 2011. Darragh Humphreys reprises his role as the disaster-prone assistant manager, Fran Costello, from the show.

The film sees Fran and his beloved amateur club, St. Peter’s Celtic, become embroiled in an international match-fixing scandal.

When Fran learns that some of his players have taken a bribe to fix an upcoming FAI Cup match, he turns detective in the hope of catching the rats.

His life is further complicated, however, by a slow-burning romance with Jackie Charlton (Amy Huberman, Last One Laughing), who is the mother of one of his players.

The film co-stars Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted), Deirdre O’Kane (Intermission), Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan), Risteárd Cooper (Extra Ordinary) and Toni O’Rourke (The Boy Who Never Was), while also featuring several fun cameos from Irish comedians.

Watch the Fran the Man trailer here:

Around the time of the movie's release, JOE caught up with Fran the Man's writer, Richie Conroy (co-creator of Crá), to discuss how the comedy came to be and the warm reaction it received from cinemagoers.

As for the big screen spin-off's origins, he explained: "[The character of Fran] actually came back in 2016. The FAI got in touch with us and said they'd love us to do a video showing how bad behaviour and, therefore, good behaviour can be on the sidelines of amateur football pitches.

"That was really interesting. Myself and Daragh went into Abbotstown and had some script meetings with the FAI... And I think Champagne Football [Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan's book] came out a couple of years later, and [there was] all the discussion about corruption in soccer... So, it just started to stir some creative juices in my head."

Conroy also said he and Humphreys were inspired by Steve Coogan's comic creation Alan Partridge and how he has endured through the years.

"We felt this character [of Fran] was strong enough to kind of look into his life now and see how he's getting on," he added.

Though Fran the Man has some heightened elements, with the assistant manager being pulled into an international criminal investigation, writer Conroy says some autobiographical elements made their way into the script.

Ardal O'Hanlon and Deirdre O'Kane in Fran the Man

"I'm actually the manager of an under-13s girls team now, and so, it's sort of all come full circle," he told JOE, laughing.

"You just see the passion and the enthusiasm and sometimes the mad behaviour on the sidelines that can certainly come into it.

"I played football for years. Nearly every club has a Fran. Somebody who volunteers, who gives up their own time to help other people play.

"There's something quite sweet about that. Sometimes those characters are derided, but actually, in our film, we look at him. And we might think at the beginning: 'Ah yeah, this is a kind of fool' but actually the more time you spend with him, the more we realise, there's depth to this character too."

Fran the Man, a small Irish film shot in just 17 days, competed in cinemas against massive Hollywood projects such as A Minecraft Movie and Sinners.

Yet it hung around for several weeks, indicating strong word-of-mouth among audiences.

At the time, Conroy revealed: "I've heard people who are going back again to watch it, and this time they're bringing their parents, and that's lovely.

"I love the idea that somebody might go and see it with their girlfriend or their boyfriend and go: 'Ah yeah, this will be a great one to bring mum and dad to.'

"It's actually a 12 cert. There's a bit of bad language, but other than that, it's a film that's suitable for children right all the way up."

Talking about what Fran the Man competed with, the writer added: "It's hard for a small Irish film to even make it to a cinema. Like, we're up against the Minecraft movie that's on breakfast cereals, drinks and fast food.

"So, it's really satisfying. I'm getting messages every day from people who have gone to see [Fran the Man], who've really enjoyed it.

"I was chatting with Ardal O'Hanlon yesterday and he was just saying: 'You'd really want to have a heart of stone not to come out of that film feeling good.' And that was the goal from the beginning: to tell a story that people could just feel good at the end of, something heartwarming.

"The news is shocking at the moment and has been since I don't know when, so it's just lovely to get a little breath of fresh air and a laugh."

Fran the Man is now streaming for free on the RTÉ Player.