Popular reviews

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★ 3

  "Things seemed to go wrong too many times"

  I was a very strange child. A touch precocious, an advanced reader and a comedy obsessive, I had read Freddie Hancock's memoir detailing her marriage to Tony Hancock by the time this Screen One aired when I was eleven going on twelve. At the time I thought this play was the best thing since sliced bread and watched it several times, but I've had no inclination to revisit it since my teenage years. Until now that is, when the BBC have suddenly realised,as part of something called the 'Festival of Funny', that they actually have an archive to raid that is pre 2005.

  William Humble's screenplay focuses on the final eight years…

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  Review by Zulu_Shaun ★★★½

  Spike Milligan once said of Tony Hancock that he first got rid of Sid James, then he got rid of Galton and Simpson, then he got rid of himself. It's a cruel piece of humour that this bio drama buys into as it plays out the painful downward spiral of Hancock's life and career in his final years. It presents Hancock as a man who feels his talents have been limited by both his writers and audience, only to find out the hard way how limited his talents are. He wants complete control so he can take all the credit but when fails he fails alone. Each new project brings the promise of a new Hancock. Only for them to…

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  Review by gibson8 ★★★½

  If you ever see a Wikipedia entry that contains the line 'shortly after he/she/they committed suicide' then this biopic of Tony Hancock will fill in that mysterious blank. Also illustrates why some artists and performers get very irritated when fans and well-wishers always focus on one particular piece of work, at the expense of the greater body of their work.

  Hancock's happiest moment in the film (which spans the last few years of his life?).

  Boy: *Points to relevant body parts on his person 'Toe-knee-hand-cock!'

  Hancock: 'You cheeky little bugger!'

  Authors note: Watch The Blood Donor!