This article was first published in The Scotsman on 29th September 2012.
BEST
POSSIBLE TASTE: THE KENNY EVERETT STORY
Wednesday,
BBC4, 9pm
HUNTED
Thursday,
BBC1, 9pm
BOARDWALK
EMPIRE
Today,
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Paul
Whitelaw
It's
often sensible to exercise a certain amount of caution around the
BBC's cottage industry of biopics about much-loved entertainers. More
often than not, they tend to treat the remarkable talent of their
subjects as an irrelevant sideshow, preferring instead to wallow in
the murky shallows of their supposedly hellish private lives.
Prurient, voyeuristic and occasionally mean-spirited, they're usually
about as sensitive as a cannonball to the groin.
So
it's with some relief that I recommend BEST POSSIBLE TASTE: THE
KENNY EVERETT STORY, a warm, witty and respectful tribute to the
ground-breaking DJ and comedian that, while never shying away from
the more troubled aspects of his character, actually goes out of its
way to celebrate his genius.
Closer
in spirit to the delightful Eric & Ernie and Tony Roche's
winningly irreverent Holy Flying Circus –
Ev's comic alter-egos, from Sid Snot to Cupid Stunt, act as a Greek
chorus throughout - it's clearly a labour of love from screenwriter
Tim Whitnall, whose ability to write about comedians with
affectionate insight was previously established by his award-winning
stage-play Morecambe.
With Ev's ex-wife and soul-mate Lee
and his key collaborator Barry Cryer both acting as consultants,
Whitnall's film abounds with a sense of anecdotal charm and detail
that so many of these biopics lack. Sure, it begins with our hero
recovering from a suicide attempt, and pivots around his struggle to
come to terms with his homosexuality, but it never treats him
crassly. Instead he's portrayed as an inveterate rebel with a
self-destructive streak, whose total mastery of his craft clashed
with his private anxieties. That's artists for you.
Framed as an unorthodox love story
between Ev and Lee, it's a touching portrait of a sensitive,
brilliant, loveable, maddening man trying to find his place in the
world, before tragically passing away years before his time. Newcomer
Oliver Lansley is simply outstanding in the lead role, inhabiting
Ev's various personae – including his softly-spoken actual self –
with uncanny accuracy and depth. If this magnificent performance
isn't awarded with a BAFTA next year, then I'll shake my fist at the
sun in anger. That'll show them.
Ex-Coronation
Street actress Katherine Kelly
provides excellent support as the strong-willed Lee, and there are
even a few colourful cameos from Freddie Mercury, Michael Winner and
Dickie Attenborough (the latter essayed by Simon Callow in
Full-Callow mode).
While
many of these biopics often look as though they were made for the
price of a packet of Swan Vestas, director James Strong does wonders
with his resources here, producing a beautiful, inventive piece that
its late subject may well have approved of. Alas, the budget cuts at
BBC4 suggest that this will be their last drama for quite some time.
But at least they've gone out on a high.
From
the sublime to the irredeemably awful. Created, presumably on a
napkin, by US dramatist Frank Spotnitz (The X Files), HUNTED
is a new eight-part thriller co-produced by Kudos, home of
Spooks, and US cable titans HBO. Normally the sort of
hackneyed, risible garbage that HBO wouldn't touch with an executive
bargepole, it's held together with every heaving cliché in the book,
as Melissa George – a fine actress, who deserves better – goes
through the motions as a beautiful yet emotionally remote private
intelligence agent who infiltrates the family of a corrupt
millionaire.
Peppered
with outbursts of nasty violence, Hunted is absolute hokum,
but not in a good way. Like 24 without the sense of comic-book
fun, it takes itself incredibly seriously, with various
migraine-intense characters interacting in that terse, furtive,
flippant way that fictional spies always do. All that's required of
George is that she pout and kick the occasional ass, while suffering
the indignity of pretending to be haunted by traumatic childhood
flashbacks that resemble nothing more than the Papa Lazarou coda from
the League of Gentlemen Christmas Special.
Piles
of cash have clearly been wasted on this one-dimensional drivel.
Watching it feels like an affront to common decency.
Fortunately,
HBO remind us what they're good at with the return of BOARDWALK
EMPIRE. Now in its third season, the roaring '20s prohibition
drama continues without one of its hitherto key characters, Jimmy
Darmody, whose murder at the climax of season two was, while
inevitable, shockingly carried out by his surrogate father Nucky
Thompson (the great Steve Buscemi).
The
abiding theme this year, then, is the transformation of Nucky from
being “half a gangster” to a full-blown lord of misrule. It's a
bold development, and one that could backfire if handled badly.
Although blatantly corrupt and responsible for orchestrating acts of
violence from afar, Nucky was always an essentially likeable
anti-hero. But it's impossible to sympathise with him now, which may
be a problem as the series progresses.
Nevertheless,
it returns with a strong opening episode introducing a dangerous new
antagonist, Gyp Rosetti, a ludicrously thin-skinned gangster set to
cause future headaches for the permanently harassed Nucky. Rosetti
may be a rather broad and familiar character, but he's still an
entertaining addition to one of the most compelling TV dramas of the
day. It sure is swell to have it back.
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