Set in the Yorkshire steel town of Sheffield it tells the story of a group of redundant factory workers who turn to stripping to earn a living.

No job to go to

The gang tune up to the sounds of Donna Summer, Hot Chocolate, Gary Glitter, Sister Sledge and Tom Jones and are coached in simple dance techniques by their former foreman, who is having great difficulty facing up to the fact he has not got a job to go to.

Its Scottish star, Robert Carlyle -- who won the Variety Club's award for best actor on Tuesday -- had to perfect a South Yorkshire accent to play the part of Gaz, an out-of-work divorcee who thinks up the idea of stripping in a bid to pay child support payments and retain access to his young son.

The Full Monty scooped two prizes at the European Film Awards in Berlin in December.

Gerald (Tom Wilkinson): dancing on the dole

Carlyle, who played the psychotic Begbie in Trainspotting, explained recently why he took the role: "The comedy angle greatly appealed, and the fact that I was playing a father."

Effects of long-term unemployment

He said: "It's played for real. All the best comedy I feel is played like that.

"It's the reality of the situation which is funnier than trying for intentional laughs."

He said the film also drew attention to the effects of long-term unemployment which he felt was important.

Lomper (Steve Huision) considers what thongs to wear

Director Peter Cattaneo graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1989 and cut his teeth on music videos.

He later directed episodes of "The Full Wax" with Ruby Wax and "The Bill" and made "Loved Up", a BBC Screen Two film starring Ian Hart and Lena Headey, in 1995.

Another Yorkshire story on the way

The Full Monty is his feature film debut and was also Simon Beaufoy's first screenplay. He has written another feature The Tower Men -- a triangular love story about pylon painters again in a Yorkshire setting -- which is currently in production.

Anne Dudley is a musician and composer who worked with Trevor Horn on classic 1980s pop songs such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Two Tribes and ABC's The Look of Love.