Ali G Indahouse

Mark Mylod's Ali G Indahouse opened in 2002 as the cinema spin-off of the character from Sacha Baron Cohen's Da Ali G Show, the dim-witted Staines wannabe gangster who had become famous on television interviewing real politicians and celebrities while posing as a serious youth-culture journalist. It was a co-production between WT2 (Working Title's lower-budget arm) and FilmFour, and it proved Baron Cohen could lead a feature, which cleared the way for Borat three years later.

Baron Cohen is joined by Michael Gambon as the well-meaning Prime Minister, Charles Dance as a deliciously Machiavellian deputy PM, Kellie Bright as Ali's girlfriend Julie, Martin Freeman as his manager Ricky C, and Rhona Mitra and Barbara New in support. Baron Cohen wrote the screenplay with Dan Mazer, who stayed on as his regular co-writer through Borat, Brüno and The Dictator. Mark Mylod, the British television director (The Royle Family, later Succession and Game of Thrones), was making his feature debut.

It is broad comedy, and also a sustained satire of New Labour's habit of borrowing from youth culture. Baron Cohen's commitment to the character (staying in voice for press tours, writing screenplay material in Ali's broken syntax) makes this one of the more disciplined character performances in the cinema of its decade. The comedy has dated unevenly, and some sequences have aged badly, but Ali's monologue style is still a touchstone of British screen comedy.