My Name Is Lenny

Last updated
My Name Is Lenny
Directed byRon Scalpello
Written byMartin Askew
Paul Van Carter
Produced byJamie McLean
Michael Mendelsohn
Nick Taussig
Paul Van Carter
Starring Josh Helman
Chanel Cresswell
Michael Bisping
CinematographyFederico Alfonzo
Edited byRebecca Lloyd
Production
company
Salon Pictures
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release date
  • 9 June 2017 (2017-06-09)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

My Name Is Lenny is a 2017 British drama film directed by Ron Scalpello, and written by Martin Askew and Paul Van Carter. The film stars Josh Helman, Chanel Cresswell, Michael Bisping and John Hurt in his penultimate film role. It tells the story of Lenny McLean's life in the east end of London.

Contents

Plot

Lenny McLean is a 27 year old undefeated bare-knuckle boxer who competes in unsanctioned street fights in the East End of London in the late 1970s. During one morning, Lenny spots a poster of undefeated boxer Roy Shaw, dubbed 'the Guv'Nor'. Linking the nickname to his abusive stepfather Jim, an infuriated Lenny immediately agrees to partake in an unsanctioned bout with him. However, Shaw badly beats McLean into a bloody state and fouls him multiple times while downed.

With little funds left, Lenny's cousin John 'Bootnose' Wall provides him with a backyard training camp and several other unsanctioned bouts to earn enough fight money to lure Shaw into a rematch. Following a confrontation at a bar with his cousin Carrots, Lenny beats Carrots close to death and bites into his neck in a drunken rage. His wife, Valerie, is horrified, and begins scorning him for his savage behaviour, leaving him.

An unofficial rematch is held between McLean and Shaw. McLean enacts his revenge and manages to knock Shaw out of the ring, though his wife Valerie is still despondent with him. The contest is deemed a draw, and an immediate rematch is called for with winnings of the last fight being transferred into the third bout. Lenny attempts to atone for his past misdeeds and decides to abstain from drinking ahead of the fight. However, after a bar brawl in which he is stabbed in the leg, he is treated for septicaemia a week later, though he recovers. Lenny and Valerie subsequently reconcile and have sex.

Johnny takes Lenny to a professional boxing gym to be properly taught boxing, and Lenny trains hard and earnestly, as well as paying for the damages he caused in his fight with Carrots.

Prior to the fight, Jim appears in the dressing room and begins taunting Lenny before being threatened by his son to leave. Lenny dominates the subsequent fight with Shaw, knocking him out in the first round and earning the titular title, the 'Guv'Nor'.

End credits show the real Lenny McLean being interviewed, and that upon being crowned the 'Guv'Nor' in 1978, he defended his title up until his death in 1998, all the while being trained by Johnny. Lenny subsequently starred in the 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, with his autobiography simultaneously taking the top spot on book charts as did the film on the box office. Lenny died a week later aged 49. Lenny was survived by his siblings and he also had two children, Jamie and Kelly McLean. Credits also reveal that Valerie passed a decade after Lenny. Carrots never forgave Lenny, but their sons are best friends.

Cast

Production

Principal photography on the film began on 22 August 2016 in the London neighbourhoods of Hoxton and Islington. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lennox Lewis</span> British-Canadian boxer (born 1965)

Lennox Claudius Lewis is a boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and held the undisputed championship. Holding dual British and Canadian citizenship, Lewis represented Canada as an amateur at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics; in the latter, he won a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Mancini</span> American boxer (born 1961)

Ray Mancini, better known as "Boom Boom" Mancini, is an American former professional boxer who competed professionally from 1979 to 1992 and who has since worked as an actor and sports commentator. He held the WBA lightweight title from 1982 to 1984. Mancini inherited his nickname from his father, boxer Lenny Mancini. In 2015, Mancini was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Basilio</span> American boxer

Carmen Basilio was an American professional boxer who was the world champion in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions, beating Sugar Ray Robinson for the latter title. An iron-chinned pressure fighter, Basilio was a combination puncher who had great stamina and eventually wore many of his opponents down with vicious attacks to the head and body.

Leonard John McLean was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman and actor. He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" and "the hardest man in Britain".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Haye</span> British boxer

David Deron Haye is a British former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, and was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Amateur Boxing Championships, where he won a silver medal in 2001.

Frank Warren is an English boxing manager and promoter and the founder of Queensberry Promotions. Warren was also a founder of the British boxing television channel BoxNation which ran for over 11 years from 2012.

Royston Henry Shaw, also known as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw and Roy West, was a property investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s–1980s, Shaw was active in the criminal underworld of London and was associated with the Kray twins. Shaw is best remembered today for his career as a fighter on the unlicensed boxing scene, becoming an arch-rival of Lenny McLean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bisping</span> English mixed martial artist (born 1979)

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping is an English sports commentator, analyst, actor, and former mixed martial artist. He competed in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor from 2004 to 2017, he held the UFC middleweight title, the Cage Rage light heavyweight title, and won the light heavyweight tournament of The Ultimate Fighter 3. At UFC 78, Bisping became the first British fighter to compete in a UFC main event, and at UFC 199, he became the first British fighter to win a UFC Championship. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on 5 July 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Mollo</span> American boxer

Mike Mollo is an American former professional boxer. A fan favorite for his aggressive style in Chicago, Mollo is perhaps best known for his bouts with Polish fighters Art Binkowski, Artur Szpilka, Andrew Golota, and Krzysztof Zimnoch. He was managed by Darnell Nicholson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UFC 78</span> UFC mixed martial arts event in 2007

UFC 78: Validation was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), that took place on November 17, 2007, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Validation was the first UFC event held in New Jersey since UFC 53: Heavy Hitters in Atlantic City on June 5, 2005.

Paul Sykes was a British professional boxer and weightlifter. A substantial portion of Sykes' adulthood was spent inside prison, where he became notorious as one of the most difficult prisoners in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Chisora</span> British boxer (born 1983)

Derek Chisora is a Zimbabwean-British professional boxer. He has challenged twice for the WBC heavyweight title in 2012 and 2022. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles from 2010 to 2011, and the European title from 2013 to 2014. As an amateur, he won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Campbell (boxer)</span> English boxer

Luke Campbell is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canelo Álvarez</span> Mexican boxer (born 1990)

Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán, commonly known as Canelo or Saúl Álvarez, is a Mexican professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of those weight classes and lineal titles in two. In 2021, Álvarez became the first and only boxer in history to become the undisputed champion at super middleweight, holding this distinction until July 2024. He has also held the Ring magazine super middleweight title since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UFC 120</span> UFC mixed martial arts event in 2010

UFC 120: Bisping vs. Akiyama was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 16, 2010, at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. The card featured six televised MMA bouts, as well as four un-aired preliminary bouts.

Lew Yates also known as Wild Thing, was a boxer, doorman, bareknuckle and unlicensed fighter and all-round hardman, associated with the fighting and criminal fraternity.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller is the fourteenth installment of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)-produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Taylor (boxer)</span> Scottish boxer

Josh Taylor is a Scottish professional boxer. He is a former undisputed light-welterweight champion, having held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) titles between 2019 and 2022, the World Boxing Council (WBC) title between 2021 and 2022, the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) title between 2021 and 2023 and the Ring magazine title between 2019 and 2023. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth light-welterweight title from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur, he won a lightweight silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and light-welterweight gold at the 2014 edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UFC 193</span> UFC mixed martial arts event in 2015

UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm was a mixed martial arts event held on 14 November 2015, at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. It was the most attended UFC event in the history of the company at the time, with 56,214 people filling the stadium. Although Ronda Rousey was heavily favored to defeat Holly Holm, Holm gave Rousey her first career defeat.

Paul Van Carter is a British film producer, novelist, and music producer. As a producer, his most recent films include the double BAFTA nominated McQueen about the life of fashion designer Alexander McQueen distributed by Lionsgate and Bleecker Street which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018; the Winston Churchill biopic Churchill set in the hours preceding D-Day 1944 which stars Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, and John Slattery; the biopic of bare-knuckle boxer Lenny McLean entitled My Name is Lenny which stars Josh Helman, Michael Bisping, and was the last film of actor Sir John Hurt; and the documentary about footballer Paul Gascoigne's life Gascoigne. As a screenwriter his credits include the prison drama Offender, the action film Shank, and the documentary The Guv'nor, which he also directed. As novelist his history of twentieth century painting Oil on Canvas, was published in 2011.

References

  1. "Now Look What You’ve Gone And Done, My Tea's Cold" – My Name Is Lenny (Film Review)
  2. Barraclough, Leo (August 22, 2016). "Boxing Movie 'My Name Is Lenny' Starts to Shoot in London (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2016.