by Chris Harris
From a cholesterol-laden Full English breakfast to unemployed Sheffield steelworkers stripping naked, few expressions are as wonderfully British as ‘the full monty’. But where did it originate? Field Marshal Montgomery, a famous tailoring empire or something altogether different? Discover the curious history of three words that conquered the world.
There are few expressions in the English language quite as, shall we say quintessentially English as The Full Monty. Three little words that can mean anything from a plate groaning under the weight of bacon, sausages and eggs to a group of unemployed Yorkshire steelworkers taking their clothes off.
To give someone the full monty means everything. The complete works. The whole lot. No half-measures. But where did this gloriously peculiar expression come from? The answer, like so many idioms and phrases, rather delightfully, is that nobody knows for certain.
The Origins of The Full Monty
There is scant evidence that it was used before the Second World War leaning very much into the first theory.
This takes us back to the Second World War and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, better known as Monty. Montgomery supposedly enjoyed a substantial breakfast, and the story goes that his soldiers began referring to a particularly hearty morning meal as the full Monty, of course whilst they had gruel and were potentially killed, but as long as Monty was okay!
Another explanation involves Montague Burton, founder of the Burton menswear empire. According to this theory, purchasing a complete three-piece suit rather than just a jacket and trousers meant getting the full Monty. His heyday was the 1920s to 50s, so this is very credible.
Other suggestions involve gambling and the older expression the whole monte, possibly associated with card games. The phrase was certainly circulating in British English before becoming widely familiar during the 1980s, but whilst its precise origins remain a mystery, I’d give weight to an amalgamation of a suit and Monty’s breakfast.
The Full English Breakfast
If there’s one place where the expression feels completely at home, it’s the British breakfast table. Bacon, sausages, fried eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding, fried bread and toast. In my lifetime this is where the term sits at home, the traditional all English cholesterol feast, the full monty, a chirpy and quirky terminology for clogging your arteries!
The Film That Conquered the World
Then, in 1997, along came a modest low budget British film that transformed the expression into an international phenomenon. The Full Monty, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy and Tom Wilkinson, followed six unemployed Sheffield men attempting to escape the humiliation of unemployment by forming a male striptease act.
Their selling point? Unlike the professional semi-clad hunky troupe, the Chippendales, they would go the full monty. What made the film extraordinary wasn’t the nudity but the humanity and the indefatigable spirit beneath it whilst acknowledging the managed decline of our industrial base, destroyed by Thatcher. Here were men struggling with unemployment, broken relationships, depression and the collapse of the industries that had defined their lives. Made for approximately $3.5 million, it earned around $258 million worldwide and received four Academy Award nominations, winning one for its musical score.
A Very British Expression
The beauty of the full monty is its versatility. It can describe a breakfast, a holiday, a wedding package, a car or anything where there are options and it is a word best used with a sense of gay abandon and throwing caution into the wind, whilst making excess sound perfectly reasonable.
It is interesting though how the title of a film has cemented the phrase, phrases come and go, into a permanent part of our language and one of our most quirky and colourful ones at that.
Make both our days by buying a copy of my book!
Something About England: Amazon.co.uk: Harris, Mr Christopher, Turner, Louise: 9798181129351: Books
Welcome to Denham, a fictitious Sussex village where behind respectable doors, well-tended gardens and familiar faces, things have a habit of going badly wrong.
Obsession, ambition, deception, jealousy and petty rivalry run through this collection of tragi-comical and satirical short stories. From poltergeists and lottery winners to cricket club feuds and environmental disasters, ordinary people embark on discovering just how quickly an ordinary life can unravel into an extraordinary mess.
Darkly funny, occasionally poignant and populated by characters who are rarely quite what they seem, these stories explore the peculiarities of Middle England, and the uncomfortable territory between respectability and ruin.
