VEE-REVIEW: It's All Gone Pete Tong

Directed by Mike Dowse and starring Paul Kaye, Beatriz Batarda and Kate Magowan, It's All Gone Pete Tong is the story of Frankie Wilde, a top DJ working in Ibiza. But Frankie is losing his hearing …

Paul Kaye as Frankie Wilde in It's all Gone Peter Tong

'It's about a guy who is hugely successful, has everything that he wants – drugs, money, women – but it all means nothing to him, he's completely numb,' Paul Kaye told Nikki. 'He's a very self-destructive character.'

Paul wore earplugs to help him play the part. What was that like? 'It affected my balance very quickly,' Paul says. 'It made the environment of the clubs quite intimidating. I think it was a sense of isolation, which was important for the character.'

The lip-reading teacher who later helps Frankie is played by a hearing actress, Beatriz Batarda, which our reviewers thought was a mistake.

'I think it would have been better to use a deaf actress,' Paul says. 'I don't know … I know that Beatrice's mother taught deaf children – still does teach deaf children I think. [So Beatrice] had a history of being around deaf people and deaf children. But I think in an ideal world, absolutely, yeah.'

'I would encourage my friends to see the film,' says our reviewer Radha Manjeshwar, 'but I would not promote it as a Deaf film. To be precise, I would say it's a film about being deafened.'

'Pete Tong', incidentally, is rhyming slang for 'wrong'.

More info

It's All Gone Pete Tong official website

Channel 4 Film review

DJ Pete Tong's official site

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