'I didn't know if it was going to play outside of Yorkshire' - Mark Addy reveals his fears over Yorkshire comedy The Full Monty

“It was a crazy time, a very weird introduction to the world of film,” says Addy.

It’s arguable that of all the cast members, it’s Addy who has had the most unexpected career. Tom Wilkinson and Robert Carlyle, have, of course, made strides in Hollywood, but who among The Full Monty’s alumni has played Fred Flintstone, worked with Ridley Scott, been the lead in an American sitcom and played a pivotal role in one of television’s biggest hits of the decade, Game of Thrones? Mark Addy, that’s who.

The York born and raised actor is back in Sheffield for the world premiere of The Nap, a new comedy thriller, set in the world of snooker, by Hull-born Richard Bean, the writer responsible for the theatrical juggernaut One Man, Two Guvnors.

“We shot Full Monty in 1996, so 20 years this year,” he says, reminiscing. “It’s the first time I’ve spent time here since then. It’s really strange to be here and walking around the city. Of course an awful lot has changed in that time. I miss the cooling towers! You look and think, ‘Well, there’s a bit of architecture the city will never get back’. It was of no use, so it’s gone, but it feels like there’s something missing from the landscape.

“We shot the film in the less salubrious areas of the city – because that’s how they wanted the movie to look. I didn’t think we were doing Sheffield’s tourist industry any favours, but in its own way it helped.”

Just in case you don’t know the film The Full Monty, here’s a recap. A group of steel workers find themselves literally and metaphorically redundant in Steel City. Led by optimist Gaz, played by Robert Carlyle, a band of brothers hatch a plan to make money by whipping their kit off in a club in front of a drunken, paying, audience.

Keighley-born Simon Beaufoy was the writer who delved into the story and wrote a script in which the characters were far more than caricatures. Addy played Dave, the member of the stripping crew who, embarrassed by his overweight frame, wants to drop out.

“It’s really extraordinary to think that was the first film I ever did. I’d done a bit of TV and theatre, but it really kicked the doors open for me,” says Addy. “When I do think back, I just feel really lucky. Nobody knew at the time – none of us – what that film was going to do. I remember thinking while we were making it that I didn’t know if it was going to play outside of Yorkshire, because it was so rooted in the North. Next thing we know, it’s a huge hit in Japan and you just think, ‘Eh, what? How did that…?’.

“They had gone through a period where a load of middle management had been laid off, so the character that Tom Wilkinson played was someone they could relate to.”

The fact that he thought he was creating something that wouldn’t travel further than the Midlands, perhaps gives the key to the secret of Addy’s long career. He says: “You never know. I could never have predicted what The Full Monty was going to do, none of us could and that’s the thing – you never know, so you always treat each job equally. You can be in a particularly prestigious cast with a big budget and it might do nothing.”

Big-hearted Addy is not unlike the film which made his name. Though The Full Monty was superficially about a band of brothers triumphing against the odds, it was actually a death throes-scream for traditional British industries.