Blur: To the End review – sentimental journey for four likely lads on their way to Wembley

The newest documentary concerning the Britpop Monkees finds them reassembling for a stadium gig, although we’ll have to attend to hear complete songs

The Blur fan does not need for documentaries. From the ramshackle Starshaped in 1993, which captured these Britpop Monkees pre-megastardom, to the slick New World Towers in 2015, this can be a band that knows what the digital camera needs: deadpan daftness and onstage hijinks interspersed with melancholic reflections on age and Englishness. The 2010 doc No Distance Left to Run confirmed the quartet reuniting after a protracted estrangement: “Let’s get the band again collectively another time!” growled singer Damon Albarn. This latest look-back-in-languor can’t do rather more than give the idea another run around the block, with added early archive footage. Now the band are again collectively again after a second prolonged estrangement, they usually have a new dragon to slay: Wembley stadium. “The less we do, the bigger we get,” observes drummer and present Mid Sussex Labour candidate Dave Rowntree.

Armed with a brand new album (The Ballad of Darren), they play assorted warm-up exhibits – Wolverhampton! Eastbourne! – as well as a homecoming gig in Colchester, Essex. Here, Damon (wanting like Albert Steptoe) and guitarist Graham Coxon (sounding like Dudley Moore) find that the music room at their former comprehensive has been named in their honour. Their suggestion that its ambience may profit from some paisley wallpaper and a bowl of weed is met with muted horror by the top instructor.