True stories accurately told are rare in the movies, and TV director Douglas Mackinnon's first feature about the remarkable Graeme Obree suffers from what it leaves out.
Obree, nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, was the eccentric cyclist who won the World Pursuit Championship twice on a bike he built himself. In doing so, he developed the "Superman" crouch position, which allowed him to shave seconds off the world record.
He did this without sponsorship and despite the frequent opposition of the world governing body, which kept on changing the rules and often banned him from competing at the last moment. He also suffered from bi-polar disorder.
Jonny Lee Miller of Trainspotting fame plays him and Laura Fraser is his supportive wife. It is a straightforward biography but it treads so gingerly around his mental troubles that you feel something is missing.
Miller performs well, but even as good an actor as Brian Cox, as his chief supporter, can't break through a rather pedestrian formula.
The Flying Scotsman
Cert: 15
