In 1989 Alfred Molina played pianist John Ogdon in the BBC Screen Two film, Virtuoso.
The writer and director reunited with Molina for this BBC Screen One film about Tony Hancock.
By this time Molina had already played several real life characters. He was Kenneth Halliwell in Prick up your ears.
Hancock was a much loved British comedy actor. With acclaimed writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, he had a hit show with Hancock's Half Hour.
Only he felt he could achieve a lot more such as movie success and maybe become a big star in America. That proved elusive as he drank too much. Although obliquely noted in this movie. Hancock had trouble remembering his lines. In later seasons of Hancock, he had the help of cue cards.
Molina gives an astonishing performance as Hancock. He physically resembles Hancock. The film concentrates in the last years of his life, after his hit BBC comedy show finished. Where he had veered away from his regular script writers.
Only Hancock hit a downward spiral in his career fueled with booze and bitterness. A movie in American failed to come off. His stage show was his usual comedy routines, not the new reinvention he promised the press.
While recording a show in Australia. Hancock committed suicide in 1968, he was only 44 years old. He looked much older when he did Hancock's Half Hour.
It is a shame that Hancock never realised how popular he was with the British public. The movie gives an insight as to some of his demons.
If there was a bum note. The actor playing John le Mesurier never convinced me.
