Full Monty Sheffield: 90s Blades shirt worn by Robert Carlyle in new series loaned to him by Gleadless man

Hollywood came to Sheffield last night (June 5) for the premiere of Disney+’s reboot of the iconic Steel City film about the boys-in-buff navigating the trials of middle age. All the stars were out at The Leadmill ahead of an exclusive screening of the first two episodes at the Showroom Cinema.

But whatever has transpired in the lives of those plucky unemployed steelworkers since they took to the stage for that iconic scene 25 years ago, it is apparently imperative that main character Gaz has been wearing the same shirt for 25 years.This could have caused some trouble during filming last year when the team behind the series, Little Island Productions, couldn’t find an authentic set of Blades colours from the 1990s ahead of filming.

Thankfully, a lifelong supporter came to the rescue.

During the eight-part series, Gaz can still be seen shuffling around wearing the Sheffield United shirt of Fred Wright, 68, from Gleadless Valley.

Fred’s niece, Lindsey Grayson, of Spotswood Close, told The Star how when she heard the crew was looking for the costume piece, she knew just who to call.

“They were very hush-hush about it,” said Lindsey, who says upping the Blades runs in the family. “They said they were filming ‘a revival series’ for ‘a 90s comedy set in Sheffield’. I thought maybe it was ‘When Saturday Comes’ with Sean Bean, until they told me it was about stripping.

“They told me they had actually just come from Bramall Lane because they were looking for a 90s Blades shirt for Robert Carlyle to wear on set, like he did in the film.

“I told them, ‘I know who’ll have one’, and took their number.”

Luckily for the production staff, Lindsey’s uncle Fred has every Blades shirt from his lifelong love of the team.

“He’s got all the shirts from across the years,” said Lindsey.

“I called him and asked if I could borrow his shirt, but I didn’t mention what for yet. 10 minutes later, he had it down from the loft and was washing it in the sink.”

Sure, the iconic red-and-white shirt found its way into the hands of the production staff to give the shoot the genuine article.

Lindsey said: “A week later, Fred asked me what I did with his shirt, and I let the cat out the bag. He said, ‘are you joking?’”

A production manager also told The Star how the shirt was used to play a prank on leading man Rob during filming in Spotswood Close, where crews shot scenes inside Gleadless Valley Parish church and one resident’s home.

Location manager for Little Island Productions Alex Tridmas told The Star: “We put the shirt in a drawer and said to him, ‘now Rob, this shirt’s on loan from a very nice man, don’t go losing it’.

“When he wasn’t in the room we moved the shirt to another drawer. When he came looking for it he went mad trying to find it, he thought he’d lost it already.”

The series will reunite The Full Monty cast 25 years after the Sheffield-based comedy became a Box Office smash hit.