Svengali review

Likeable casting can’t quite salvage director John Hardwick’s threadbare British pop comedy, under-developed from a web series.

Fish-out-of-water clichés aren’t enough to hide the gaping plot cracks as Welsh postman Dixie (Jonny Owen, who also wrote/produced) tries, haplessly, to promote an inexplicably rising indie band in London.

Lent stalwart support by Vicky McClure ( This Is England ), Owen convinces as a sweet dope.

But Matt Berry’s leering label boss, Martin Freeman’s grumpy shop-owner and several pop cameos (label maverick Alan McGee, The Libertines’ Carl Barat) play like sketch matter, better suited to this spread-thin project’s online origins.