Main Cast: Steve Coogan, Lena Headey, Stephen Dillane, Om Puri, Steven Waddington
Release Year: 2001
Country: UK
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
British television comic Steve Coogan made his first bid for a big-screen career in this comedy, in which he plays Simon Garden, a singularly inept parole officer who has not had terribly good luck with his clients -- after many years on the job, only three of the former prisoners he's been looking after have avoided returning to a life of crime. Garden is transferred from his post in Blackpool to a new assignment in Manchester, and it isn't long before he finds himself in hot water. Garden happened to be on hand when Burton (Stephen Dellane), a crooked cop, murdered a drug dealer with whom he had been involved in a cocaine deal. Realizing he's in trouble, Burton rearranges the evidence so that Garden looks like the killer. A surveillance camera captured Burton's crime on tape, and now Garden must get his hands on the tape in order to clear his name. However, Burton has cleverly stashed the tape in a top security bank vault to keep it away from Garden, so the parole officer must stage a break-in to collect the evidence -- and he chooses as his accomplices George (Om Puri), Jeff (Steven Waddington), and Colin (Ben Miller), the three parolees who've stayed out of trouble until now. The Parole Officer also features Emma Williams as a former associate of Burton's who ends up helping out Garden, and cameos from Omar Sharif and Jenny Agutter. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Simon Garden is a well-meaning but ineffectual probation officer. At the beginning of the film, he is facing a tribunal after his entire department in Blackpool submit complaints against him, Garden having only had three successes in his career. He is therefore transferred to Manchester.
In Manchester, when looking into the case of a "client", Kirsty, a juvenile delinquent who had had Class A drugs planted on her, Simon witnesses the murder of an accountant by corrupt police officer Detective Inspector Burton. He is discovered, chased from the building by two bouncers and after being cornered, ends up falling into a canal. However, he has inadvertently left his wallet containing identification at the crime scene and is duly framed for the accountant's murder by DI Burton. Simon goes to the police with the story, but ends up being interviewed by Burton, who is leading the investigation. He releases Simon, but threatens him with prison unless he keeps quiet about his drugs scam and the murder.
Simon first decides to leave Manchester for good, but then remembers that a CCTV camera had filmed the whole event. He realises that this security tape will clear his name and show that Burton was the real murderer. Unfortunately, it is sealed in a safety deposit box in a bank. Thus, he enlists the help of his successful ex-clients and between them they devise a cunning plan to retrieve the tape from the bank.
Production
Despite the film being set in Manchester, much of the filming actually took place in nearby Liverpool.[1][2] Notably, the bank in the film where the heist takes place is the former Bank of England building on Castle Street.[3]
One such wall was built by A & C Galley Building Contractors
