The Full Monty begins with a public information film about Sheffield. This is just the kind of thing that we were shown in school in the early seventies. In fact, I remember only two kinds of movie in school. The first was local propaganda of the kind just mentioned. The second was a film with very distorted but triumphant music, made by Shell or BP, on something to do with chemistry. Apart from these, we also sometimes saw BBC schools broadcasts, which were superb.

Apart from steel and striptease, other well known things in Sheffield are Sheffield Wednesday, the hole in the road, and the fountain at the top of Fargate with the coloured lights, standing in front of the mock gothic town hall, from the top of which Vulcan looks down on his anvil wondering what happened to all the steel. The hole is filled in now and the fountain keeps moving or being renovated. But Sheffield Wednesday keeps on going. Though a nominal Wednesday-ite, I only went to see them play a total of three times. I was not a fervent supporter. But once, in 1971, we got the afternoon off school just to see them play Santos, and Pele touched the ball a total of three times, which is approximately the number of times I used to touch the ball while playing for the Wisewood Comprehensive scrubbers.