BBC4 comedy biopics

[DB7]

BBC4 makes Frankie Howerd biopic

Published Tuesday 27 November 2007 at 13:30 by Matthew Hemley

Exclusive: BBC4 is developing a 60-minute film about the life and work of comedian Frankie Howerd as part of a raft of new biographical dramas being planned for 2008.

The channel is understood to be keen to follow the success it has had with recent biopics on music hall legend Marie Lloyd and television chef Fanny Craddock, both of which attracted good audiences, and has lined up the Howerd drama alongside one-offs on the actors behind comedy classic Steptoe and Son, Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett, and the television gameshow host Hughie Green.

Last week, the channel also announced a drama about Tony Hancock, starring Rebus actor Ken Stott and Maxine Peake.

BBC controller of drama production John Yorke told The Stage that biographical dramas are an important part of BBC4’s schedule.

He said: “BBC4 found there is a real appetite for biopics about the recent past and it suddenly became a really exciting area. You do people like Fanny Craddock and Isabella Beeton who people might remember from their childhood - because that is BBC4’s demographic - and it is a really interesting area. It is just about getting the right subject matter, but comedians like Howerd have fairly colourful stories anyway.”

Yorke also said that the biopics could normally be made on lower budgets than other dramas.

He added: “You can make films for £500,000. It is not easy and the writing has to be brilliant. Although it means you sometimes have to sacrifice the bigger names to star in them, what you find is, if it is the right project, they will come and do it.”

Howerd, who died in 1992, was best known for his work in the TV series Up Pompeii. He also appeared in some of the Carry On movies and was awarded an OBE in 1977.

Casting for the new biopics has not yet been announced.

[Tony Pendrey]

Originally Posted by DB7 BBC4 makes Frankie Howerd biopic Published Tuesday 27 November 2007 at 13:30 by Matthew Hemley Last week, the channel also announced a drama about Tony Hancock, starring Rebus actor Ken Stott and Maxine Peake. BBC controller of drama production John Yorke told The Stage that biographical dramas are an important part of BBC4’s schedule.

Hope they make a better job of it than the terrible "Hancock" from 1991 with Alfred Molina as the man himself.

[Marky B]

There are also plans for the BBC to do a biopic about Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett when they were playing Steptoe And Son - Phillip Davis and Jason Issacs are going to play the roles respectively.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[batman]

Originally Posted by Tony Pendrey Hope they make a better job of it than the terrible "Hancock" from 1991 with Alfred Molina as the man himself.

I thought Molina was excellent as Hancock. Although he bore little physical resemblance to the lad, I thought he captured the body language and vocal intonations superbly well. He did OK with the emotive stuff too in what I found to be a very enjoyable prodcution.

What was it you didn't like about the film, Tony?

Bats.

[Tony Pendrey]

Well Bats, it has just stuck in my mind as not very good for some reason. Was a long time ago though.

I remember it as being a bit laboured but then again maybe I was expecting too much.

Probably need to see it again.

[tgunnell]

Watched a channel four programme about harry h corbet and wilfred bramble which showed that at the end ,their relationship became so bad that harry h corbett would not even fly in the same plane

[Cuffy]

Originally Posted by tgunnell Watched a channel four programme about harry h corbet and wilfred bramble which showed that at the end ,their relationship became so bad that harry h corbett would not even fly in the same plane

I remember seeing that a few years back, it was all very sad. The clip of Bramble being interviewed following Corbett's death seemed to sum it all up.

I console myself with the fact that it's the flaws that make for the genius.

[DB7]

Scriptwriters reject the 'Curse of Comedy'
Are all comics tragic clowns, as BBC Four suggests? The men who wrote for Hancock and Howerd beg to differ
The generic title of this series for BBC Four is The Curse of Comedy, featuring the off-stage misery and emotional problems of Frankie Howerd, Tony Hancock and Hughie Green plus Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, aka Steptoe and Son.

Seeing as we wrote everything that Tony Hancock did for nearly ten years including more than 100 radio half-hours, 60 TV half-hours, a film, a stage show and a Command Performance, created and wrote every episode of Steptoe and Son, and wrote several series for Frankie Howerd one cannot but wonder, “Did we drive them to it?” But then, as nearly all of these problems took place after we stopped writing for them, should we feel guilty? After all there is nothing wrong with us. There isn't, there isn't!

We are both very suspicious of the “laugh clown laugh” concept, the Pagliacci syndrome that underneath the motley all comedians are miserable bastards. In our experience the most miserable comics were the rotten ones and thus had plenty to be miserable about. For instance Frankie Howerd, off stage, providing he was talking about himself, was the happiest man you could meet. Wonderful company and a genuinely funny man, which is all that matters. His private life had nothing to do with you, us, or anybody else. His demise wasn't sad; he achieved more than his allotted three score years and ten and could have carried on carrying on for years. There wasn't a grey hair in his wig. As Frank would have said, the only tragedy was that it had to come to an end.

Tony Hancock was a slightly different kettle of fish. Let's face it, to be a comedian you've got to have a lot of chutzpah. To stand up in front of crowds of people making a fool of yourself takes determination. Take Adolf Hitler. Even with his silly haircut and funny moustache and with an audience of 20,000 stormtroopers he did all those Nuremberg rallies and didn't get one laugh. Like them all, he put it down to his writers, blamed the audience, and went on to almost take over the world.

Unlike Tony, whose dark night of the soul was the first house on Monday night at the Glasgow Empire. He never enjoyed the theatre but found his niche on radio and TV. Due to his reputation of gloom, the public conception of him is of a man who makes Jack Dee look like the Laughing Policeman. This is totally at odds with our experience. Firstly, he was the greatest laugher you could imagine. If something tickled him in a read-through he would collapse in hysterics and roll around on the floor clutching his sides helplessly. This would make Sidney James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams, three other notorious guffawers, join in and we would sit there embarrassed that we had caused all this incontinence.

Tony was a joy to work with. His interpretation and timing of a joke were always nigh perfect. His only problem was learning the lines. He worked at it endlessly. He would be up all night with a recording machine. It was his Achilles' heel. His future battles with the bottle were not yet in evidence. He never drank before or during a performance, only afterwards did he relax and allow himself a few bottles of brandy. He went from strength to strength, culminating in the last series we did with him, which included some of his best work. The turning point came during the rehearsals of perhaps his most famous piece, The Blood Donor. He was involved in a car accident and suffered a mild concussion that prevented him from learning his lines. The BBC offered him the choice between postponing the recording or bringing in teleprompters. He chose the latter. It was like handing him the keys of the prison. He was free. The misery and tedium had gone. It was the worst mistake of his life. He never learnt another line, his performances suffered, the bottle gradually took over and a slow descent began, culminating in his suicide at the ludicrously early age of 44. The most important and influential comedian of the postwar era was gone.

Steptoe and Son was different again. It was the product of something we had wanted to do for a long time. Work with actors. There was a simple reasoning behind this. If, for instance, your main character was an anarchistic atheist with a penchant for the-love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name, there wasn't a comic in the country who would have said, “Yeah that's me, I'll do that.” Whereas an actor would jump at the opportunity, providing the character had a repository of even darker tendencies to be revealed as the series progressed and if the money was right. With Steptoe we were lucky to get one of the most talked-about actors in the profession in Harry H. Corbett and a middle- aged actor who specialised in playing old men. Wilfrid Brambell doing what Moore Marriott had done 30 years earlier with Will Hay. Then followed eight series over 12 years during which the audience peaked at 28,500,000, a figure that has since been claimed by several shows, but ours was genuine. Oh yes it was!

During this entire period we were unaware of any conflict between the actors save from the occasional gritting of Wilfrid's false teeth when Harry had the perceived audacity to give him a little direction. At all other times they were the acme of professionalism. True they didn't mix socially, being entirely different animals. Wilfrid was the typical actor-laddie, immaculately dressed, overcoat draped over the shoulders, trousers with knife-edge creases, highly shined shoes, gold top cane, but for the part he would have a two- day growth of beard and put on the rags from the wardrobe department along with a rendered-down set of teeth, blackened and chipped. After the show he would change back and emerge from his dressing room like a peacock - totally unrecognisable to the extent that one evening we had a call from the commissionaire at the entrance to the BBC Club saying that a man was trying to get in claiming to be Wilfrid Brambell and he won't go away. Harry had no such problem. He was dressed better as Harold Steptoe than Harry Corbett.

And so to the biopics. They are all about parts of their lives to which we were not privy, so as to the content we cannot possibly comment. They are all dead now so neither can they. Suffice to say that they all left a great body of work behind them, which in the final analysis is the only thing that matters. The first thing that struck us was how well the films are directed, reminiscent of Ingrid Bergman* at his best, and they are also beautifully played. That's what we meant earlier about actors: fiendishly clever they are, the originals couldn't have done any better. And we must not forget the writers - everyone else does. Well done lads.

Finally, on a personal note, a word about the two actors playing us in the Steptoe film. We are both 6ft 4in and they're not. But at least they sound like us. The previous time we were portrayed, in a play about Hancock, one of us was broad Scots and the other was Australian. It's not right.

[chelseablue]

I read somewhere that they were making a Benny Hill one with Matt Lucas. Anyone else heard this? Also does anyone know when the Frankie Howerd and Steptoe ones are on?

[CaptainWaggett]

All the details are here
.

I hadn't realised there's a Hughie Green one as well as Steptoe, Howerd and Hancock. Some excellent casting there - Alex Jennings will be great as John Le Mesurier.

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by chelseablue I read somewhere that they were making a Benny Hill one with Matt Lucas. Anyone else heard this? Also does anyone know when the Frankie Howerd and Steptoe ones are on?

Who's going to play Tarby in a biopic of his life, and would anybody want to ?

[batman]

Originally Posted by Windthrop Who's going to play Tarby in a biopic of his life, and would anybody want to ?

Craig Charles?

[DB7]

Originally Posted by batman Craig Charles?

Calm down, calm down.

[batman]

Originally Posted by DB7 Calm down, calm down.

But which one is the comedian?

[Joenoir]

The only problem with these biographies is that it is hard to accept the actors as the performers, especially with this series where, to many people, they are so well known. I just can't see David Walliams as Frankie Howerd. It will, however, be nice to see Dilys Laye as Howerd's mother and Rafe Spall as his partner, Dennis. Michael Sheen was believable as Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa!, and Samantha Spiro made a better job of playing Barbara Windsor in Cor, Blimey! than Babs herself!