Greatest Days (film)

Greatest Days is a 2023 British musical film based on the Take That jukebox musical of the same name (originally titled The Band), directed by Coky Giedroyc and written by Tim Firth.^[2] The film was released on 16 June 2023.^[3]

Greatest Days
Film poster
Directed by	Coky Giedroyc
Written by	Tim Firth
Produced by	Danny Perkins Kate Solomon Jane Hooks
Cinematography	Mike Eley
Edited by	Mark Davies
Music by	Oli Julian Nick Foster
Production companies	Elysian Film Group SPG3
Distributed by	Bron Releasing
Release date	2023 (2023)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$2 million[1]

Plot

Four friends, who have not seen each other for 25 years, reunite after one of them wins tickets to a reunion concert of their childhood favourite band.

Cast

• Aisling Bea as Rachel
  • Lara McDonnell as young Rachel
• Alice Lowe as Heather
  • Eliza Dobson as young Heather
• Amaka Okafor as Zoe
  • Nandi Sawyers-Hudson as young Zoe
• Jayde Adams as Claire
  • Carragon Guest as young Claire
• Marc Wootton as Jeff
• Matthew McNulty as Stuart
• Jessie Mae Alonzo as Debbie
• Aaron Bryan
• Dalvin Cory
• Joshua Jung
• Mark Samaras
• Mervin Noronha
• Gary Barlow, Howard Donald & Mark Owen as Buskers on Train (cameo)

Production

Producing the film are Danny Perkins, Kate Solomon and Jane Hooks. Executive producers include Take That themselves, Damian Jones of DJ Films, Tobias Gutzwiller of SPG3, David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers who produced the original musical, and Joe Naftalin.^[2]

In March 2022, it was announced Aisling Bea would star in the film alongside Alice Lowe, Amaka Okafor, Jayde Adams, Marc Wootton, Matthew McNulty, Lara McDonnell, Jessie Mae Alonzo, Nandi Sawyers-Hudson, Carragon Guest, and Eliza Dobson. Aaron Bryan, Dalvin Cory, Joshua Jung, Mark Samaras and Mervin Noronha would make up the film's fictional boy band.^[2]

Principal photography took place in Clitheroe, Lancashire in April 2022 before moving to Athens.^[4]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.^[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[6]