Rarely can the Olympic mantra of Baron Pierre de Coubertin have been better exemplified than by this ski jumper. Now us Brits have a tough enough time at the Winter Olympic Games at the best of times, so the fact that this slightly geeky, bespectacled, young man alighted on ski jumping is even more bizarre. You'd have had to side with his somewhat sceptical dad (Keith Allen). He's not to be deterred, though, and so he heads somewhere snowy (Garmisch) and luckily befriends a local hotel owner who lets him work his passage, so to speak. By his own admission, he's pretty hopeless - barely managing to stay erect after a jump of little more than 30m, but a chance encounter with Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) provides the most unlikely of conduits to his improvement and eventual qualification for the Olympiad in Calgary in 1988. I remember the huge spike of interest in his death-defying efforts as the legendary Matti Nykänen (Edvin Endre) regularly and consistently jumped twice his distance but yet Eddie still persevered. It was very much a case of the taking part not the winning and Taron Egerton really does imbue his character with a determination, tempered with just a little eccentricity, that delivers a comedic drama that I think is peculiarly British. The unimpressed suits at the BOA are perfectly summed up by Mark Benton, there's the vaguest hint of romance and a scene in a sauna that could probably only be pulled off by Rune Temte. Like the man himself, it's a little slow off the mark, but once it gets going it's one enjoyably paced and humorously written tale of a man who did manage to capture the heart of a nation despite the fact that a medal was never, ever, on the cards.
