Robbie Williams - The Road To Mandalay

What this video is

Released 9 July 2001 as a double A-side with 'Eternity,' the single reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and was the 20th-best-selling single of 2001 in the UK, representing the commercial zenith of Robbie Williams' post-Take That solo dominance. The video's South of France heist aesthetic drew on a confluence of early-2000s cultural appetites: the lad-magazine era's celebration of blokey escapism, the…

Why it matters

Represents the apex of early-2000s British pop's embrace of short-form cinematic narrative, using a full heist-film arc within a four-minute music video. Demonstrates how major-label pop productions of the era were absorbing post-Ritchie British crime aesthetics into mainstream visual language,…

The director

British music video and TV commercial director born 1961 in Chertsey, Surrey. Career began in 1983 directing Paul Young's 'Love of the Common People.' Formerly one half of directorial duo Vaughan & Anthea (with Anthea Benton) through 1996. Key credits…