David Challinor

Well, let's suppose I have some inside knowledge of BBC commissioning and this BBC 4 drama season gets another series. Four more past heroes of comedy get their personal life looked at. My choices would be:
Benny Hill (preferably written by his biographer, Mark Lewisholm)
Ernie Wise (where's the drama in the 100% loved/admired Eric?)
Dick Emery
Les Dawson

....what are your choices? But I'd really like to know who could play these guys, especially Benny Hill

davidb

i bet they wouldnt dare do bernard manning ,fascinating if they did ,peter kay could do a great job playing him im sure ,charles hawtrey would be another good one

orpheum

Tommy Cooper.a really tormented character.Another one who liked the booze.Just watched the Hancock & Joan programme and thought Ken Stott was awful.

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davidb

yeah that was the only one i lost interest in ,when you compare trevor eves efforts or david walliams who gave it 110% ,as kevin keegan would say , or the steptoe one as well ,both actors in that capturing a likeness and the same mannerisms , ken stott looked like his heart wasnt in it ,mind you amongst those performances it would be easy to be overshadowed

orpheum

from the hancock film i just could not imagine why Joan was drawn to Hancock.Stott exuded as much animal magnatism as Norah Batty and Ena Sharples put tgogether or Bernard manning in his underpants.By the way John Le M was cheated on by Hatteie Jacques but lived on in the house and Hattie continued to liook after him.He was obviously one of a kind.However alas the demon drink did for him in the end.In my view he was the only sympathetic character in Hancock.

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CaptainWaggett

How was Bernard Manning cursed? He seems to have been someone 100% content in his life with no hang-ups at all.

Yootha Joyce had a career with many parallels to Harry H Corbett and is probably remembered with a similar amount of affection. Not sure what Les Dawson's inner torment was meant to be - surely he didn't want to play Hamlet?

Hattie Jacques would be an interesting subject but the full story can't really be handled while Eric Sykes is still with us. From an earlier generation, what about Geroge Formby? Surely his life would have been a lot more fun without Beryl but probably he wouldn't have had had the same ambition so his career would have been stuck in twice nightly variety.

penfold

Or, but for his mother, he might have been happier as a jockey....Beryl was pretty much a continuation of Mrs Formby Sr....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

batman

What was that drama about Old Mother Riley called .... Maureen Lipman was in it IIRC. I am surprised they haven't remade that.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

CaptainWaggett

With Brian Murphy? Was it something like 'On you Bike, Riley?'. Trouble is, Lucan really is a forgotten figure.

But I think there's loads more mileage out of the Carry On team, especially Hawtrey as someone said. Or Hancock - but there can't really be one about him dumping all his co-stars while Bill Kerr is (happily) still with us. Or the Nicholas Parsons / Arthur Haynes story?

GRAEME

What do you mean, Captain? Were Eric and Hattie an item?

All men leak.

oxfam1uk

I've never heard that Ernie Wise was in any way unhappy - quite the opposite in fact.

Same with Eric Morecambe. He had heart problems, but certainly seemed a cheerful chap.

I don't quite understand the point of this "Curse of Comedy" season. Are we supposed to enjoy finding out that famous people were unhappy ?

CaptainWaggett

The new biography of Hattie by Andy Merriman (son of the Beyond our Ken writer Eric) says that Hattie's family wouldn't let Eric come to her funeral and that he got very jealous of her success. For example when they did a summer season, he rewrote her part so she would be unrecognisable on her first entrance and not get an ovation. And she had a crappy dressing room up loads of stairs even though she had severe varicose veins. Though he doesn't seem to have interviewed Eric but maybe he was turned down (after all, Eric has just written his own book). Obviously I don't know the real truth but there does seem to be an element of Corbett and Brambell in their relationship.

batman

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

GRAEME

I'm rather sad about that. For once, this is information I wish I hadn't had. Thanks for the reply but I now wish I hadn't asked.

I always wanted to think of them as best friends...

All men leak.

Windthrop

The Curse of Dusty Bin - Post 3-2-1 Ted Rogers can't get work without his partner Dusty and when a business deal collapses Rogers is financially ruined.

You Unlucky People - The Tommy Trinder Saga - TT, thinking himself invincible, comes off worse after a conflict with the Grade brothers and spends his last years as a TV warm-up man.

The Curse of Schnorbitz - Bernie Winters replaces his brother with a St. Bernard dog and bookings become thin on the ground.

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !