My dad's favourite comedian was Tony Hancock although I'm too young by some years to remember his early 60's popularity or mid 60's eventual decline and fall into alcoholism and an early death. Ironically taking its title no doubt from the Hancock character's defiant assertion midway through this gritty drama that he shared billing with no-one, this in fact is a three-header with a fine understated well-measured performance from Alex Jennings as the cuckolded husband, celebrated English actor John Le Mesurier (best known as Sgt Wilson in BBC's perennial "Dad's Army"). He gets his accent and mannerisms right and conveys tellingly Le Mesurier's weary passion-less effete-ism which effectively drives his passionate wife into the arms and bed of best friend Hancock who he unselfishly invites into his home to boost his spirits (talk about bringing the wolf to your door!).
Given that the two leads get to act out a doomed affair, born of lust and fuelled by insecurity, depression and above all alcohol, their performances are naturally the dramatic centre-piece here and their at times heightened but always believable playing contrasts very well with the rest of the cast's down-home (or as Hancock has it, "provincial") playing. Ken Stott, for once not portraying a TV cop, also copes well with Hancock's accent and physical attributes and demonstrates his range with an emotionally charged performance as the hapless, parasitical, tortured yet still just lovable enough egoist in the main title role.
The writing requires him to display the full gamut of pathetic emotions a drowning alcoholic must experience until they hit rock bottom and either sink or swim. Maxine Peake is at least as good as the adulterous wife, drawn helplessly but willingly into Hancock's fading orbit. She only just survives even as she combines the separate weaknesses (so we are told) of Hancock's previous two wives into one as she turns drunkard and suicidal to try and shock Hancock back to reality. The two fantasy scenes work very well, both at the death (literally), with firstly Hancock making peace with his typecast comedic past in a dream sequence where he is becalmed by his "Lad from East Cheam" alter-ego before his overdose and especially Joan's stoic external reaction to the news of his death contrasted simultaneously to the passionately emotional outburst she suffers inside which she could never exhibit in front of her passive husband Le Mesurier.
This was an engrossing and illuminating insight into the last days of a major British comedic talent and an interesting and imaginative study of the damage that these difficult people inflict, sometimes unwittingly, on those lesser mortals who innocently stray into their extreme lives.
