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Fear of Fanny

January 17th, 2007

I am all in for drama presentations, in this particular case the use of a drama to illustrate a point in the middle of one of BBC4’s Food Nights can only be commended. The BBC has a long history of one-off low budget plays, some of the 60’s and 70’s output was inspired, you mention Mike Leigh. But to every Mike Leigh effort there were as many clunkers. Whilst I wouldn’t call ‘Fear of Fanny’ a clunker; I think character led dramas are something to be encouraged, it could take alot of tips by watching the likes a Leigh in the art of making drama documentaries such as this.

My first concern on watching this was the casting. You just cannot have actors aged in their 30’s attempting to play characters who were supposed to be in their mid-60’s during the main events of this drama. Whilst Julia Davis did a fair, if over played Fanny Craddock. Mark Gattiss was at a loss at what to do whilst playing Johnnie. Indeed the real Johnnie with his trademark handle-bar mustache, ex-army persona was barely hinted at through Mark Gattiss’s performance who seemed to spend much of the time attempting not to act like one of his ‘League Of Gentlemen’ characters.

What annoyed me most was the complete tabloid hachett job that this drama presented. No sympathy for Fanny Craddock was ever attempted, nothing to explain why she behaved the way she did. There was very little to explain the relationship between Fanny and Johnny even though in real life she was deeply devoted to Johnny Craddock and was one of the few people who could control her out-bursts. What we were offered was a one-sided view of circumstances from a writer who had obviously only read the tittle-tattle with no attempt to try to discover any underlying reasons. I still don’t know what I was watching, was it a Docu-drama / Comedy Drama / Auto-biographical or a pure fiction piece ? I am sure the Craddocks must be spinning like Kenwoods to think that this drama is how most people will now perceive them.

Of course many situations described in the drama did occur as depicted such as the raw-seafood / Big Time events. This drama must always be viewed together with ‘The Way we Cooked’ to get a true perspective on events. However, the showing of a vintage ‘Fanny Craddock invites’ did go some way to demonstrate that not all Fanny’s perculiar personality traits were that over-blown in the drama; showing the viewer her and Johnnies ‘Ego Wall’ , the terrified looking assistants and the switch-on smile to close the proceedings all seemed in keeping with the supposed troubles going on behind the scenes. Indeed Fanny Craddocks ability to talk solidily without pause for a full 30 minutes is quite an amazing feit and tells lots to amateur psychologists.

I do not totally agree with the common point of view that this drama was mocking the tastes and practices of our parents generation, indeed one other complaint I had with the drama was that there was very little food related narrative in there. However in the austere post-war years, Fanny Craddocks blue tinted eggs with French sounding names on her mayonnaise decorated roast chicken must have seemed like the latest in food fashion. Just read any of her cookery books today and ensure you wear sun-glasses to protect yourself against the harsh, glossy glare on the pictures. If anything it is food snobbery today which stops us still eating such delightful fare such as ‘Baked Alaska’.

So in defence of ‘Fear of Fanny’ , at least it has got lots of people talking which is always a good thing for drama to do.

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