Tonight, me and my partner began our annual rewatch of ‘Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas’ frankly, a delicacy for seasonal viewing that quite literally has to be SEEN, to be believed. I’ve revisited the series for the better part of 20 years now, and without fail, it never fails to shock and surprise me at just how bizarre that period of Mincmeat mayhem really truely was.

Well; after watching the first episode tonight, I noticed that BBC iplayer had resurfaced ‘Fear of Fanny’ a 2006 ‘biopic’ essentially showing a snatched glance at the lives of Fanny and Johnny Cradock from around 1955 through to Fannys final years between 1990 and 1994. and it was ‘Okay.’

Theres a few things that ultimately kind of hamstring this feature, the first is that, its really kind of inconsistent on detail and the fragmented nature of the film makes it even harder to really properly tell exactly when and where all of this is actually supposed to be taking place in relation to what we’re seeing.

Its presumed we open in 1955, but by that point we’ve already missed quite a significant portion of Fannys more interesting lived experiences. Instead; we’re thrown right into her seemingly treating every ‘performance’ as if it may very well be the be all and end all of her career. I feel the special really does bring to life how cold and unusual she could truely be to people, and how her fear of abandonment manifested in a most unsightly way, but the film never truly gets to the nub of the issue, instead having lots of moments of ‘we’ll let the audience decide for themselves’ contrasted with several blunt moments, where the cast may as well be giving the audience Fannys psychological evaluation direction down the barrel of the camera.

then at around the 30 minute mark, we suddenly jump in time and its 1972…only, noone looks any older, and fashion hasnt really updated much. So I actually have NO idea when this thing was supposed to have started, or if the opening up until that point was supposed to be curated scenes from 1955 up to 1971…and things only really get more unweildy from there, as we jump from ’72 to ’78 to ’87 and finally to 1990…which is 4 years before she died, so not even really an ‘end’ so to speak. The events depicted in the feature ACTUALLY did happen, but because they dont really do enough to differentiate the passage of time they make almost 40 years of history feel like it happened in 5.

At its core, this biopic attempts to humanise Fanny, and to put much closer attention on her relationship with Johnny, her rock in many ways and her foundational support through her own battled emotions. and thats the part of this that I enjoyed the most, seeing these characters interact with each other on a base level with all the ‘act’ and pretense stripped back created a genuinely tender piece at times that I found quite moving.

Unfortunately, the feature spends most of the first 2 acts just running the same story over and over again (Fanny is a monster, someone new comes along, shes nice to them at first, gradually gets more and more involved in their life, and meaner, until they push back, and Fanny gets rid of them…usually rounded off with the person being given the chuck, telling Fanny a cold home truth that shakes her a bit) Which was fine the first time or two, but it happens a lot, and I feel that a lot of patient viewers would struggle to get quite far into this one as a result. Which is a shame because the best of this film lies in its final 30-40 minutes.

The characterisations are mostly spot on, the dialogues lovely, its just the pacing and structuring that I feel really kind of muddy this one a bit.

Direction is pretty solid, this isnt much out of the usual for BBC4 docu-dramas from the mid 2000s, its definitely got a flare to it that gives it some creative zeal, but its nothing standout beyond a few flourishes, smae goes for the cine here, which is clean, competent and helps drive home the feeling of isolation and distance Fanny had with everyone.

For me? and it pains me to say it, But I just didnt care for Julia Davies performance here as Fanny, she didnt look like Fanny, her delivery didnt match the tone or rhythm of Fanny, the makeup wasnt quite a match for Fannys. She didnt really embody the character for me, I just spent most of the film feeling like I was watching someone half attempt a Fanny impression. Davies is a skilled comedian and performer, and I know shes been great in several things i’ve seen. But this just didnt hit the spot for me. I took much more pleasure in watching Mark Gatiss as Johnny Craddock, not only do I feel like he really captured the likeness and mannerisms of Johnny, but he slowly eeks the character out across the runtime, from just ‘the browbeaten husband’ into a genuinely empathetic and tender character piece, I actually felt quite a sense of sorrow from Gatiss performance here, and I think he honestly nailed it.

Add to the above that the scores a bit hit and miss, easy listening and ‘smooth jazz’ wasnt what i’d envisioned for a score on this one. I dont think it really works, but I could see why they went the way they did…and the BIGGEST crime this feature commits…which is that they didnt even ATTEMPT to recreate any of the footage from her christmas specials. and I came away from this one glad that I watched it, probably unlikely to revisit it for a good long while, and a bit melancholic honestly. Fanny was a complex person who needed support that simply didnt exist at the time. and to see her fall from grace and the loss of anything and everything around her was a genuinely upsetting thing. But I dont quite feel like this film found its feet until it was really way to late to course correct. Starts wobbly, ends strong, soggy bottom.

If you, like me, came to Fanny from her Christmas programme, and want to get a better understanding of the woman, this is a pretty solid enough ‘crash course’ on everything that happened around the time of those shows…But I dont feel like it truely grasps who she was, and why she came to be the way she ended up.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/fear-of-fanny/