The list of East End legends to have made their mark on the big screen is long and geezer-filled. The latest, bare-knuckle fighter Lenny McLean, is the subject of My Name Is Lenny, a new British drama that’s just wrapped and has a new shot to share.
Doing the slugging here (in gloves, admittedly) is X-Men: Apocalypse’s Josh Helman, who steps into the boots of “Britain’s toughest man”. John Hurt, a recent addition to the cast, co-stars alongside UFC fighter Michael Bisping. The latter plays McLean’s nemesis Roy ‘Pretty Boy’ Shaw, while Channel Cresswell (This Is England: 90) plays his (presumably) long-suffering wife.
The film charts McLean’s rise from East End street fighter in the 1970s to champion fighter, via some traumatic childhood experiences. It probably doesn’t take in his cameo as Barry the Baptist in Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, although one of his co-stars from that film, Nick Moran, will be appearing.
My Name Is Lenny will be reaching UK cinema screens in 2017.