The Guv’nor review – unsettling hardman documentary

Jamie McLean, the son of bouncer, bare-knuckle fighter and “the toughest man in Britain”, Lenny McLean, attempts to show another side of the man who once bit off someone’s nose during a scrap. But the revelation that Lenny loved his family and was partial to cream cakes rather pales into insignificance next to the fact that he once coughed up bits of human flesh after a fight that nearly killed his friend. You wouldn’t want to be his enemy. This is a slightly prurient documentary, which goes heavy on nostalgia for the good old days of the East End, when big men in sharp suits only hurt their own.