Just perfect...

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Maxine Peake showed her abilities with a terrifying performance as Myra Hindley. Considering she was opposite Jim Broadbent as Lord Longford and Andy Serkis as Ian Brady, that took some doing.Here, she steals the show with a spellbinding turn as John Le Mesurier's wife Joan. Unfortunately, this drama is out of kilter with the rest of The Curse of Comedy series. All the others cover a timespan during which the subjects were at their peak of success. This covers a two year period several years after Tony Hancock was one of the biggest stars on UK TV with Hancock's Half Hour and Hancock, and also after his unsuccessful film career. The events in this dramatisation bring matters to the conclusion of Hancock's lonely suicide in Austratlia. The death scenes were unsatisfactory, as Hancock sees a ghostly image of Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, the character from East Cheam which brought him fame and fortune.A pity we didn't see Ken Stott saying "A PINT? THAT'S VERY NEARLY AN ARMFUL!"

This was the second of the BBC's 'Curse of Comedy' dramas and perhaps the seediest. Based on the memoirs of Joan Le Mesurier about her self-destructive and selfish affair with Tony Hancock in the final years of his life, this does not do any of the characters any favours and, despite fine performances from Maxine Peake, Ken Stott, and Alex Jennings (as John Le Mesurier), places the story firmly in the tatty seaside setting (where in fact the two mismatched lovers go to live at one point).I'm never quite sure what's achieved by taking the real-life problems of TV icons and putting them so baldly on the screen. 'Hancock and Joan', although engrossing and oddly moving at times, felt like an intrusion into private lives which should have stayed private.

This was a superbly well crafted TV drama with cracking performances form both leads that made your heart go out to both characters even though you could not help but see the banality of their relationship and the selfishness both of them showed to all those who loved them. Stott and Peake are both outstanding and I hope they receive credit and praise for their performances (it is good to see Peake moving on from 'Shameless' and I for one never expected such a quality performance of restraint from her). The depiction of Tony Hancock's affair with Joan is not pleasant viewing as most of us will know the outcome from the start and it is certainly not pleasant watching people fall into a circle of disaster all caused by one man's impending sense of doom thoroughly fuelled by chronic alcoholism, and you do really feel for the people around them, especially Joan's husband John (another excellent performance by Alex Jennings). Hightly effective viewing which achieves all it sets out to do.

Just when you get sick of the barrage of reality TV and the dispiritingly banal shows that seem to make up the majority of TV it comes as a real pleasure to come across a TV drama like this. A deceptively straight-forward account of the affair between Tony Hancock and Joan Le Mesurier (wife of the wonderful John) the film follows their relationship from its tentative beginnings through the problems with Hancock's chronic alcoholism, and its devastating impact on both their lives, to the inevitable ending. This is a well written piece that rarely puts a foot wrong but the real heart and soul of the film are the outstanding performances from Stott and Peake who are both exceptional. Indeed, both their performances deserve to get noticed come the next BAFTA awards.