Beyond Trainspotting: The World of Irvine Welsh review – uniquely funny writer holds court

Here, in addition to Paul Sng’s recent documentary about Irvine Welsh, is another one; it is watchable enough, though with less original interview material. The extended footage of Welsh in conversation is certainly engaging, as he discusses his writing and the movies it created, and his own youth in Edinburgh.

Some of the rest of the interviewees aren’t quite so gripping, however, and the film is padded out with a fair bit of redundant anecdotage from people on the subject of getting hilariously wasted in Irvine’s company — or at least his approximate vicinity. As for one 90s ladmag-style story about Irvine doing some kind of Marquis de Sade-themed photoshoot in Ibiza’s Manumission club involving prising apart young women’s buttocks for the camera … well maybe you had to be there.

Iggy Pop, whose Lust for Life featured in Trainspotting, is interviewed, and so is producer Andrew Macdonald, but interview footage with director Danny Boyle and the Trainspotting stars seems to have been cannibalised from junket videos they did back in 2017 for the film sequel T2 Trainspotting (based on Welsh’s book Porno). Be that as it may, I would have liked to hear more from Welsh about the cities he loves and about other authors and music he loves – and more from other authors about how he influenced them. But it’s always a pleasure to hear from this uniquely funny and articulate writer.