Hattie | |
---|---|
Based on | Hattie: The Authorised Biography of Hattie Jacques by Andy Merriman |
Written by | Stephen Russell |
Directed by | Dan Zeff |
Starring | Ruth Jones Robert Bathurst Aidan Turner |
Theme music composer | Stephen McKeon |
Production | |
Producers | Seb Barwell Richard Osborne |
Cinematography | Ian Moss |
Editor | Lois Bygrave |
Running time | 85 minutes |
Production company | Angel Eye Media |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Four |
Release | 19 January 2011 |
Hattie is a television film about the life of British comic actress Hattie Jacques, played by Ruth Jones, her marriage to John Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst) and her affair with their lodger John Schofield (Aidan Turner). [1] First broadcast in January 2011, it became the most watched programme on BBC Four ever and outdid biopic The Curse of Steptoe , which had held the record since 2008. [2] Jacques' son Robin Le Mesurier later described Jones' performance as "(having) captured my mother perfectly". [3]
Anthony John Hancock was an English comedian and actor.
Carry On is a British comedy franchise comprising 31 films, four Christmas specials, a television series and stage shows produced between 1958 and 1992. Produced by Peter Rogers, the Carry On films were directed by Gerald Thomas and starred a regular ensemble that included Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas, and Jim Dale. The humour of Carry On was in the British comic tradition of music hall and bawdy seaside postcards. The success of the films led to several spin-offs, including four Christmas television specials (1969–1973), a 1975 television series of 13 episodes, a West End stage show and two provincial summer shows.
Hattie Jacques was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer.
John Le Mesurier was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation comedy Dad's Army (1968–1977). A self-confessed "jobbing actor", Le Mesurier appeared in more than 120 films across a range of genres, normally in smaller supporting parts.
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton is an English actress.
The Pleasure Garden is a 1953 short film written and directed by James Broughton, starring Hattie Jacques, Lindsay Anderson, and John Le Mesurier.
Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.
Blithe Spirit is a comic play by Noël Coward, described by the author as "an improbable farce in three acts". The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his wilful and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost.
Toby Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.
Ruth Alexandra Elisabeth Jones is a Welsh actress, comedian, writer and producer. She co-wrote and co-starred in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey. She also co-wrote and starred in the Sky One comedy-drama Stella (2012–2017), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Screenwriter.
Robert Guy Bathurst is a British actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959, his family moved to Ballybrack, Dublin, Ireland, and Bathurst attended school in Killiney and later was enrolled at Headfort, an Irish boarding school. In 1966, the family moved back to England and Bathurst transferred to Worth School in Sussex, where he took up amateur dramatics. At the age of 18, he read law at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and joined the Footlights group.
Harriet Jane Morahan is an English actress. Her roles include Sister Clara in The Golden Compass (2007), Gale Benson in The Bank Job (2008), Alice in The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014), Ann in Mr. Holmes (2015), Rose Coyne in My Mother and Other Strangers (2016), Agathe/The Enchantress in Beauty and the Beast (2017), Corinne Aldrich in Luther: The Fallen Sun, Louise in Hijack, and Caroline Burkett in Fool Me Once.
Dennis Geoffrey William Wilson, known as Dennis Main Wilson was a British producer of radio and television programmes, mainly for the BBC. Main Wilson has been described by Screenonline as "arguably the most important and influential of all comedy producers/directors in British radio and television".
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American series. In the show, the host surprises a special guest, before taking them through their life with the assistance of the 'big red book'. Both celebrities and non-celebrities have been featured on the show. The show was originally broadcast live, and over its run it has alternated between being broadcast on the BBC and on ITV.
Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! is a 2006 BBC Four television play starring Michael Sheen as the British comic actor Kenneth Williams, based on Williams' own diaries. Cheryl Campbell plays Williams's mother, Lou.
Christmas Night with the Stars was a television show broadcast each Christmas night by the BBC from 1958 to 1972. The show was hosted each year by a leading star of BBC TV and featured specially-made short seasonal editions of the previous year's most successful BBC sitcoms and light entertainment programmes. Most of the variety segments no longer exist in accordance with the BBC's practice of discarding programmes at the time.
Aidan Turner is an Irish actor. He began his career in the RTÉ medical drama The Clinic (2008–2009) and the BBC series Desperate Romantics (2009). He later gained attention for co-starring as one of the main leads in the popular BBC Three series Being Human (2009–2011), and for playing the dwarf Kíli in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), before starring as the eponymous character in the BBC adaptation of Winston Graham's Poldark (2015–2019).
The Queen is a 2009 British docudrama showing Elizabeth II at various points during her life. Broadcast on Channel 4 over five consecutive nights from 29 November 2009, the Queen is portrayed by a different actress in each episode. The series was co-funded by the American Broadcasting Company, the network which aired the series in the US.
The filmography of English actor Robert Bathurst comprises both film and television roles spanning almost 30 years. Bathurst made his acting debut for television in 1982 in the never-broadcast pilot episode for the BBC sitcom Blackadder, though his character Prince Henry was recast when the Black Adder series was commissioned. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Bathurst appeared in episodes of The Lenny Henry Show, Who Dares Wins, The District Nurse, Red Dwarf, and Chelmsford 123, before starring alongside his Cambridge Footlights colleague Stephen Fry in the short-run series Anything More Would Be Greedy. He also appeared in the films Whoops Apocalypse (1986) and Just Ask for Diamond (1988).
Joan Dorothy Le Mesurier was an English actress and author who was the widow and biographer of the actor John Le Mesurier.