Appleton is supportive of the film and was consulted throughout production - unlike Williams' father Peter Conway, a singer with whom he has performed many times over the years. In Better Man, he is played by Inside No 9's Steve Pemberton and portrayed as someone who let down his family.

This new film showing Robbie as a CGI chimp is all about his inner world - but cathartic as it is, he's not entirely free

It sounds like a bad joke. Robbie Williams, one of the best-selling music artists on the planet, portrayed as an all-singing, all-dancing chimpanzee in his very own rock biopic? Pull the other one, mate.

Robbie Williams, Take That’s cheeky chappie-turned-tabloid fodder solo phenomenon, described himself as a performing monkey, prancing and preening in front of the cameras and seeking the approval of the audience (or at least a banana or two).

It's 2001 and nine-year-old Jonno Davies is standing in the crowd as Robbie Williams entertains 65,000 people at the Milton Keynes Bowl. "He was just this symbol of cool, and that stuck with me for a long

First reviews are in and critics have given Robbie Williams' musical biopic Better Man excellent ratings. The semi-biographical film chronicles the singer's quick ascent to stardom as a member of Take That and subsequent precipitous decline as he grappled with his inner demons and the difficulties that come with fame.

Robbie Williams had no interest in sanitising his life story for his new biopic Better Man. The new biopic charts the Rock DJ singer's rise to fame with Take That and his phenomenal solo career as well as the low points in his life,

If you ever plan on lobbing a criticism at Robbie Williams, he’ll probably beat you to it. The British musician, 50, has spent more than three decades in the spotlight – and in that time, he’s remained one of the most hotly debated figures in pop culture.