Film Fun Facts

[Peter Gray]

DVD Description
Face to Face was a landmark series of interviews broadcast on BBC Television between 1959 and 1962, in which John Freeman, former politician and editor of the New Statesman, put searching questions to a wide range of famous and outstanding figures of the day. Now available for the first time on DVD, these interviews have been carefully restored for this release, which marks the 50th anniversary of the series.
Hugely popular and often controversial, Face to Face pioneered a new style of interviewing. Guests were filmed in tight close-up and under stark lighting, while their interrogator's face remained unseen, his back to the camera. And at a time of stifling deference in broadcasting, Freeman's insightful and often probing personal questions made for riveting viewing and frequently caused a sensation.

The guest list was remarkable and included Dr Martin Luther King, Carl Jung, Evelyn Waugh, Tony Hancock, King Hussein of Jordan, Dame Edith Sitwell, Lord Reith, Stirling Moss, Bertrand Russell, Otto Klemperer, Compton Mackenzie, Adam Faith, Simone Signoret, John Osborne, Henry Moore, Cecil Beaton, Augustus John and Gilbert Harding. For some, their Face to Face interview would be their only appearance on television."

quote from amazon..

it does sound very hard hitting...not exactly Parky..never seen an episode of this so its all new to me..Hancock sure liked to analysis things..maybe too much..

[colcool007]

For those interested in seeing what this early interview program was like, you can find a few clips over on... Well, you know where. Just make sure you click on the video tab when you run your search.

Darn. This is absurdly off-topic, so to bring it back...er...ummm...Arthur Askey!

*runs for it!*

[Kashgar]

What of course blurs the issue with Hancock rather than say the stars of Galton and Simpson's other great sucess Steptoe and Son Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell is that the character that Hancock was playing had the same name as himself and did basically the same job, albeit somewhat less successfully. So I suppose that being the case it is possible that people might have been more likely to confuse performer with performance.
As far as I'm aware no recored exists of whether Hancock, the man himself, rather than Hancock, 'the lad himself' ever read his weekly adventures in Film Fun although, of course, as he did appear on the cover of the 1960 Film Fun annual with the self-same annual in his hand he may well have had a sneak peak at his comic strip self on at least one occasion.

[Digifiend]

For those interested in seeing what this early interview program was like, you can find a few clips over on... Well, you know where. Just make sure you click on the video tab when you run your search.

Darn. This is absurdly off-topic, so to bring it back...er...ummm...Arthur Askey!

*runs for it!*

Hmm, that poll we had before Christmas was almost unanimously in favour of an off topic forum, but Al hasn't set it up yet...

[philcom55]

As far as I'm aware no recored exists of whether Hancock, the man himself, rather than Hancock, 'the lad himself' ever read his weekly adventures in Film Fun although, of course, as he did appear on the cover of the 1960 Film Fun annual with the self-same annual in his hand he may well have had a sneak peak at his comic strip self on at least one occasion.

Actually it shows him holding a caricature of himself, which may well have been pasted into a different image anyway (in the manner of all those 'infinite regression' covers so beloved of editors).


However given Reg Parlett's approach to 'character' strips, as described in his 1979 interview with Alan Clark, there's at least one sense in which the 'real' Hancock is likely to have interacted with his Film Fun series:

"...I did use photographs but it was essential to meet the star I had to draw in person, whether it be over lunch or in their dressing rooms or on stage in order to capture their mannerisms etc. To draw someone from just photographs would make it a very stiff set indeed. I didn't have to make sketches or anything when I went to see them. It was a purely visual exercise - I just mentally stored away my impressions of them to use when I came to draw a set in which they appeared."

- I don't know if any record exists of what happened when 'Reg met Tony' (with or without Sid! ) but I'd love to have been a fly on that dressing room wall. In fact it strikes me that the situation could even form the basis of a fascinating short play or comic strip in which the mysterious relationship between art and life is explored in terms of actor, clown, screen-persona - and their eventual representation as a cartoon character...!

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Watched on youtube the first part of the Hancock interview...found it very heavy..wasn't very keen on the program...I can see why people complained..I thought Hancock did very well answering the difficult questions..
Hancock seemed to be a very searching man..

[Kashgar]

Thanks for rectifying my mistake Phil re the Tony Hancock Film Fun annual cover. I was getting it confused with an ad in the magazine Top Spot in which Tony Hancock is shown holding a copy of the annual in question.
I have a feeling that Reg only got to meet those stars that featured in strips which he instigated to get their images right from the start. So while he probably got to meet Benny Hill, Charlie Drake (Mick and Montmerency) and Sally Barnes etc I doubt if his relatively short mid strip run on Hancock would have warranted him much more than a photo reference. The meeting, whether real or imaginary, would still make for a good play though.

[stevezodiac]

Some of the Face to Face programmes were repeated many years ago on tv and I watched (and taped) the Hancock and Adam Faith interviews. What stuck in my mind was Adam Faith saying his favourite book was The Catcher in the Rye. I'd never heard of it but over the years it appears to be one of those books everyone should have read and has been mentioned a lot this week what with JD Salinger becoming Hovis. Is it any cop? (ducks hurled small objects including ashtray) Or was Adam just being pretentious? (BTW I am a huge fan of his tv series Budgie, available on DVD and a not to be missed joy of British tv. Probably the best tv show ever named after a caged bird to my knowledge).

[felneymike]

Some of the Face to Face programmes were repeated many years ago on tv and I watched (and taped) the Hancock and Adam Faith interviews. What stuck in my mind was Adam Faith saying his favourite book was The Catcher in the Rye. I'd never heard of it but over the years it appears to be one of those books everyone should have read and has been mentioned a lot this week what with JD Salinger becoming Hovis. Is it any cop? (ducks hurled small objects including ashtray) Or was Adam just being pretentious? (BTW I am a huge fan of his tv series Budgie, available on DVD and a not to be missed joy of British tv. Probably the best tv show ever named after a caged bird to my knowledge).

I think Catcher in the Rye was one of the books singled out for it's own show in the "Big Read" thing a few years ago, 1984 and Pride and Prejudice being others...

Apparently the writer was really reclusive and was barely seen in public. Apparently he's written loads of other stuff that wasn't to be published until he died. Though that might just have been a blown-out-of-proportion urban legend.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

'Catcher in the rhye' author Salinger died this very week, apparantly!


Anyone else think that the caricature held up by Hancock [1960 annual, above] is actually modeled on the selfsame photo of Tony within the same frame himself, just artificially inserted afterwards?

[NP]

Some of the Face to Face programmes were repeated many years ago on tv and I watched (and taped) the Hancock and Adam Faith interviews. What stuck in my mind was Adam Faith saying his favourite book was The Catcher in the Rye. I'd never heard of it but over the years it appears to be one of those books everyone should have read and has been mentioned a lot this week what with JD Salinger becoming Hovis. Is it any cop?

I haven't read it and I'm not likely to as it seems a bit whiney, adolescent, self-justifying. I think I was permanently put off it when the murderer of John Lennon, when asked why he'd killed, said the answer was in the book. No thanks.
Well I ordered the Face to Face DVD set, not cheap at £42 but WORTH EVERY PENNY! I'd seen a couple of shows on BBC's Festival 40 in 1976, then the 10 part run in 1988, but here are 34 of the 35 episodes (Albert Finney witheld permission). It's very compulsive watching - a lot of the interviews were broadcast live and many of them were never interviewed on TV before or since. Towering names like Martin Luther King, Augustus John, Carl Jung, and everybody's favourite This Is Your Life refusee Danny Blanchflower! History.

[stevezodiac]

Towering names like Martin Luther King, Augustus John, Carl Jung, and everybody's favourite This Is Your Life refusee Danny Blanchflower! History.



Wot, no Charlie Drake?

[Phoenix]

Wot, no Charlie Drake?

John Freeman probably realised that Charlie would have tripped over the first question and fallen flat on his face to face.

[Phoenix]

I haven't read it and I'm not likely to as it seems a bit whiney, adolescent, self-justifying.

This is like me saying I won't read any of Jane Austen's novels because I've been told that they are full of upper-middle class bozos who spend their lives gossiping, saying mean things about each other, fancying soldiers, dressing up in their finery and going to balls. And the women are like that as well! Read the book, NP. I doubt whether it's ever been out of print since its publication. Your local library is bound to have a copy.

[philcom55]

Read the book, NP. I doubt whether it's ever been out of print since its publication.

Yes - I remember being extremely impressed when I read it. To my mind allowing oneself to be put off by people like John Lennon's murderer is rather like refusing to listen to the Beatles' White Album because of Charles Manson's obsessive interest in it.

- Phil Rushton