Tears of a British Clown or two, or four

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 19th, 2008

FOS Ron Reid sends word of an article from the Independent (UK) about an upcoming series of plays on the BBC which “will revisit the shambolic lives of (Tony) Hancock, (Frankie) Howerd, the two lead actors of (long-running British television series) Steptoe and Son (Harry Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell) and Hughie Green. The comedians are all well-known to viewers of British television. Terence Blacker of the Independent grows weary:

Every time another play, biopic or drama-doc about a sad comedian comes off the production-line, the same tired question is asked: what made men with the gift to bring happiness through laughter so miserable in their own lives? Here is another, rather more interesting question: why do we care? This need to be told over and over again that a funny man was really not funny at all, but an alcoholic/ cheapskate/ bully/ depressive/ pervert reveals more about us than the subject.

Seems like they’re doing it on the other side of the pond as well.

Blacker continues:

Presented under the title The Curse of Comedy, it might just as well have been called The Lure of the Cliché. At a time when interesting plays are almost impossible to find on TV, the only projects that appear to get through on the nod are warmed-over versions of the tears-of-a-clown story, set in the world of British showbusiness over the past 50 years.

These plays provide a sort of comfort food for viewers too discerning to watch reality TV. Ordinary, unfunny people are reassured by the terrible mess that the extraordinary and the funny so often make of their lives. The story of sad, dead comedians provides a much-needed final act to the morality plays enacted for us by the famous in their private lives.

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