Posts Tagged ‘rackpack’
The Rack Pack | BBC iPlayer
11 January, 2016Update: Luddites can see The Rack Pack on terrestrial TV during the World Snooker Championships c2130, 30 April at 10pm, 16 July, BBC2.
The first drama feature film for iPlayer is out on Sunday [ trailer | playlist ]. It’s about Alex Higgins and these men:
Just been to the premiere of Rack Pack. It's out on Bbc I player on 17 th January Whatever you do don't miss this it's totally brilliant.
— Barry Hearn (@BarryHearn) December 17, 2015
Oh my! Snooker fans! Just watched The Rack Pack. Funny early but by the end I had tears of sadness. It's brilliant! https://t.co/UM8PAmLlzb
— Steve Davis (@SteveSnooker) January 13, 2016
@jamesdanw IMHO it's an superb portrayal of Alex, Me, Barry and the snooker scene back then. The poetic license afforded it adds 2 the drama
— Steve Davis (@SteveSnooker) January 13, 2016
Detailing the complex relationship between Steve Davis and Alex Higgins, and the part played in it by Hearn, the sport’s ringmaster, the film is by turns hilarious and tear-jerking. Its re-creation of an era of quite magnificent sleaze is so precise you can almost feel your shoes sticking to the snooker hall carpets as you watch — Jim White, Telegraph
Delightful… What this is not is a cartoonish romp through snooker’s glory days. For the most part it is very moving. But despite all this, Shaun Pye, Mark Chappell and Alan Connor’s film is still a wonderful nostalgia fest for all us 1980s kids, hearing names you haven’t heard uttered for 30 years — Ben Dowell, Radio Times
Shifts beautifully between laugh-out-loud moments and characters pressing the self-destruct button — Alyson Rudd, Front Row, Radio 4
For 90 minutes of pure nostalgia, this takes some beating — Hector Nunns, Times
…hilariously recounts the tension between the pair.
Hearn has seen the film and says it is ‘absolutely fantastic‘. He goes on: ‘It captures exactly the spirit of that time, the conflict between Davis and Higgins and the birth of modern-day commercial snooker. I had to rub my eyes sometimes; it was as though I was watching the real thing. It’s sensational.
‘The film is brutally honest.’ — Tom Parry, Boudicca Fox-Leonard, Mirror
Snooker is famed as the perfect TV sport, but it never looks as good as this — Andrew Collins, Guardian
Snooker fans will have tuned in to the final of this year’s Masters on BBC Two, but over on iPlayer a more thrilling portrayal of the sport was playing out — Rachel Ward, Telegraph
…the only puzzle about The Rack Pack is why the corporation [is] uncertain how to categorise what is simply superb drama — Martin Hoyle, Financial Times
- A film by Brian Welsh
- Luke Treadaway, Will Merrick, Kevin Bishop, Nichola Burley, James Bailey
- Created and written by Shaun Pye, Mark Chappell, Alan Connor
- Producer Barney Reisz
- Executive Producer Peter Holmes
- Executive Producers Shane Allen, Victoria Jaye, Gregor Sharp
