Brian and Charles (2022) review

Welsh handyman Brian (David Earl) - who's also a cabbage enthusiast! - decides to build his own robot out of parts laying around out of a sense of loneliness and comes up with Charles (voiced by Chris Hayward) who becomes his best buddy ... but Bonfire King (and area loon) Eddie wants to steal Charles for reasons it never bothers spelling out (maybe he's a secret Luddite?).  The setup is sweet enough - the friendship that grows between man and machine is quaint in a cornball sort-of way, and it's more believable than the relationship he has with town spinster Hazel (Louise Brealey) - although it takes over an hour for it to realize something has to happen other than watch two goofballs playing in the yard ... which is what you'd expect from a feature that was originally a short film and then "padded" for length (why everyone keeps doing this is beyond me).  It's done in this faux-documentary style similar to The Office - lots of talking to the camera, etc. - but Earl's genteel Mr. Fix-It couldn't imagine being as pleasingly irritating as Gervais' David Brent.