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

Now 32, Davies is appearing in cinemas around the world in Better Man, a musical biopic in which he plays his childhood hero. But he is far from recognisable, partly because of his hard work studying and recreating William's voice and mannerisms, but mostly because he's represented on screen as a computer-generated chimpanzee.

POP superstar Robbie Williams has revealed his wife’s reaction the moment he told her that he was going to be portrayed by a CGI monkey in his new movie, Better Man.

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).

Robbie Williams' new film Better Man has been well-received by critics, but social media has been awash with debate after it was revealed he would be portrayed as a performing monkey