Fear of Fanny (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

funny, sad and dark

[hatusu-1 · 7/10 · 24 October 2006]

i thought that this was an excellent portrait of a deeply complex and individualistic woman. Julia Davis shines as she always does, and seems to inhabit the unknowable Mrs Cradock effortlessly.

Whether you admire Madame Fanny or not, and preposterous and obnoxious as she seems, I rather do, she was a pioneering female, very much of her time, and the world is a more interesting place because she was in it. To paraphrase a line from the programme, better to die miserable than be boring, darling!

My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen more about her earlier life, how she managed to throw fabulous dinner parties despite World War 2 rationing by catching and cooking whatever unfortunate wildlife strayed into her garden, why she abandoned her children and just what made her tick. Maybe we'll never really know. Maybe we shouldn't.

The Voice, Darling.

[trimmerb1234 · 7/10 · 2 October 2009]

All wrong, Darling. Completely wrong! Hypercritical (of others) Fanny Craddock must, one might suppose, be writhing in frustration at not being able to correct this aspect of her portrayal. The voice was rather hoarse, a bit affectedly posh, honking, loud and rather braying it was not unique for its time, it was the voice of the older actress or gregarious hostess and with her almost clown-like make-up (I recall her face looking white with make-up)combined to be her instantly recognisable trade-mark. The sound spoke eloquently of its process of formation - of cigarettes, of alcohol and being used frequently, loudly and confidently. Out of sight of the camera but within easy reach viewers might have supposed there was a lit cigarette and glass of something ready for instant use between takes.

Johnnie was from that "stand up straight, head up, chest out, stomach in" era and class that - all blazers, brilliantine and cravats, a familiar sight of those times. The little Benny Hill Show section with late comic actor Bob Todd caught the style perfectly. The style at least implied that the man was a gentleman and former army officer, probably ex-cavalry hence the stiff back - the posture even had a name: "a military bearing". As part of this was a gallant and rather courtly attitude to "ladies". Being "properly dressed" ie blazer and all, was not reserved just for "going out" but could be felt to be an obligation once breakfast had been cleared away indeed perhaps before breakfast (part of "keeping up standards"). (Newsreels of the 1930's show football fans going to the match in three piece suits and hats - it was an era where, relative today, people were over-dressed). It would have been more comic (and more moving) if Johnnie had been that more formally attired and courtly only to receive the verbal lashings from Fanny in return.

I'm not sure that Fanny was a "victim of her demons" rather than product of her time - a twilight period for class, family money, Empire, privileged travel and cheap subservient staff.

A film version with a more substantial script (including some reference to her earlier life) and two standout lead performances would be a dish to be relished, unfortunately currently only in anticipation. Difficult to imagine anyone better than the ubiquitous Jim Broadbent to play Johnnie. More difficult to cast Fanny - its the voice that's the problem.

Postscript: an superb biography of Fanny Craddock is to be found on Wikipedia. It notes her extraordinary pre-TV life including early destitution, particularly hard for someone from a once "good" family. However well worth reading too the surprising biography of her famous father - apart from being fascinating in its own right it sheds a great deal of light on Fanny. "Fear of Fanny" apparently was originally a stage play.

Enjoyable and amusing but a bit sad

[barbecuedbanana · 8/10 · 24 October 2006]

I learned things I didn't know about Fanny and I thought Julia Davis's portrayal of her was absolutely spot on. It was fun to watch and quite touching in places. Fanny became a much more human personality after watching this play/comedy/drama and I felt very sympathetic to her even though she was obviously an extremely difficult person to live with.

I felt very sorry for her family as well. She obviously had quite a collection of personality disorders which were not being recognised or helped. For eccentricity read 'in need of psychiatric or psychoanalytical help'.

Blue eggs with mayonnaise made us all laugh. I thought the lady member of the publics menu sounded yummy.

Interesting and entertaining potted history of Craddock's public life but lacks insight into much beyond this

[bob the moo · 8 January 2007]

As the top TV chef on the BBC, Fanny Craddock showing the masses how to produce elaborate dishes on a tight budget. Working with her long suffering husband Johnnie, Fanny is a domineering character who likes things just the way she likes them – an attitude that comes across on the screen no matter how she holds it in. Her children are remote and those that work with her generally do so in fear of their next mistake. At the height of her fame though, this aspect of her character starts to eat back on her life.

I'm getting older but I'm not old enough to remember when Fanny Craddock was a major influence in the world of TV chefs and generally I ignore their programmes anyway. However I was slightly aware of Craddock just because of the domineering and the way she used to talk down to her audience as if they were all a bit below her. This film focuses on the years when she was established and then moves through as her style quickly gets dated and her career comes to an end. In doing this the film never gets that deep into the character but yet does enough to show what a tragic figure she becomes as a result of her own actions. In this regard it is simplistic but interesting enough to work for what it is. Despite the terribly comedy title, the film is not that funny aside from the figure of fun that Craddock herself was. It is sad to watch her break and, although some actual depth and insight would have been nice, the events themselves are enough to carry the film. I did think at the end though that, apart from her recipes being stuck several decades back, Craddock would be in her element now as television has become cruel and full of matriarchal types (think Weakest Link, How Clean is Your House, You Are What You Eat etc etc); how ironic that barely a generation ago the thing that essentially ended her career would now have producers clambering to sign her up for a game show of some sort.

As Craddock, Davis does a very good job on the surface and is convincing throughout as this battleaxe of a woman. She struggles to find a person within the character but this is the material's problem as much as it is hers. Gatiss is a little bit better but again he doesn't have much in the way of character to work with – he has been told "you are long suffering" and left to get on with it. The rest of the cast fill in around the edges nicely enough but at the end the film doesn't even belong to Davis, it belongs to the caricature that was Fanny Craddock as this is what looms large over every scene.

Worth a look then for a potty history of who this famous TV chef was in terms of her public life and as such it is entertaining and quite interesting. However those looking for understanding and/or insight into why she was and who she really was when she was stripped bare in the quiet moments will not find anything that clever here.

Its about cooking...

[fostrhod · 7/10 · 5 March 2024]

Fear of Fanny (2006) which is a biography about Fanny Cradock and not vaginaphobia (it's a real phobia apparently) I'm currently on a Julia Davis binge, trying to find and watch all of her many tv performances in which she's starred. In this Davis plays Fanny Cradock the 70's TV chief with a devilish smirk, over her badly painted arched eyebrows .Cradock plagued the TVs in the 7Os with her mushroom vol-au-vent;s and lobster pate and all those other culinary delights which darkened the taste buds of our parents in search of that table top masterpieces for the table spreads. Cradock partner in crime her husband a permanently sozzled Johnny played excellently by Mark Gatiss. The film a BBC production, highlights the facade that Cradock created, it was all an act for the camera's and her fans. She was a bully on screen and in the home, but this hides her loneliness in her that her two sons had both left home, when Cradock hadn't approved of the girlfriends and life choices.

Its a nice nostalgia piece, all the colours principally browns, greens and yellow are all muted and look at times like vomit as does the food to be fair.

The final straw for Cradock is when she belittles a an amateur cook on the BBC TV show Esther Rantzen's Big Time, the audience finally see her for what she is.

Following the sad demise of Johnny we see Fanny, in her dotage arranging the dinner's in her care home much to the chagrin of the kitchen staff.

Its a nice study by Davis, not essential and not that funny perhaps the nature of playing a real person reigned in Davis's dark side, but does make you yearn to see what the real fanny was like.

My recollection of Fanny is from the dim and distanced past and it was the Fanny popularised by Benny Hill, which is seen in the film.

As for Vol-au-vents which I know you were thinking, I tasted these at one of my sisters weddings in the 70s, those condensed cream of mushroom soups opened my taste buds to such delights Vesta's Chow Mein with their crispy noodles, and other various over seas delights. It was around this time that I tried and tasted curried egg, which my brother and sister in law brought the recipe when traveling to the far east. 9/10 for the memories 5/10 for the food and 7/10 for the film.

How on earth can anyone call this dull?!

[rhiw · 10/10 · 24 October 2006]

This was a great show about a deeply insecure woman with intense emotional problems. The show catalogued a lifetime of pretence and despair and the pain she inflicted on others most notably her daughter in law.

I wasn't old enough to see her shows the first time but I remember the infamous blue boiled eggs and the green mashed potatoes as well as other equally hideous food.

Her treatment of the dying Johnny when she couldn't even bring herself to visit him in hospital seemed especially harsh but Fanny suffered from her own demons which seemed to torment her constantly.

Off the mark

[Jiji-3 · 2/10 · 1 October 2011]

I've never had much of a clue what kind of person Fanny Cradock was off screen. On the surface, what bits and pieces I've seen of her TV show always made her seem very quick on her feet, somewhat posh in a calm, intimidating sort of way but most of all perfectly confident. Very little (if any) of that attitude is to be found in this film. Julia Davis comes across uptight instead of posh or intimidating, and constantly nervous and easily upset instead of calm and confident. (That includes the TV show segments so it's not a matter of the movie implying Fanny might have looked formidable on TV but was actually insecure and neurotic off camera.)

I just couldn't recommend this film - when even the obvious stuff is so far off base (whether that's on purpose or because Davis just couldn't pull off a proper Fanny is another matter), I simply can't lend any believability to the more complex parts that are meant to be dealing with the woman's private life and personality while not so subtly passing judgment on both every 20 minutes. 2 out of 10.

Saved by Julia Davis

[gray4 · 5/10 · 25 October 2006]

This interesting, if rather boring, piece of nostalgia was rescued by the two central performances. Julia Davis, as the awful Fanny Craddock and her much put-upon sidekick Johnny (Mike Gatiss) provided astonishingly accurate portraits of the first TV chef and partner - reviving memories of those terrible TV programmes with their disgusting concoctions. After her triumphs in 'Nighty Night', Julia Davis now shows us a very different virago.

The private life of the two central characters was less interesting. Apart from allusions to Fanny's rather more adventurous past and her seriously unpleasant tantrums and manipulations, there wasn't much to make a full-length drama from. The other members of the odd household paled into insignificance alongside Fanny. So much so that the later part of the drama was enlivened only by a cameo from the Benny Hill Show! But there really wasn't enough meat to justify this bio-pic of an unpleasant and rather disturbed woman.

Pointless

[Nicolaivich · 3/10 · 27 December 2006]

Julia Davis is a brilliant writer and actress but I found this utterly boring. It was billed as a black comedy but it prompted not one laugh. It was not particularly black either. The recreation of the period seemed meticulous and rang true to me, who vaguely remembers the programmes. But such ingenuity deserves a better script. One is tempted to suggest that the subject matter was just not that interesting. However, there were hints that Craddock's character was extraordinarily complex. But left as hints they did not lead anywhere. I suspect that Julia Davis was too constrained by the need for this biopic to be true to the known facts to be able to produce anything funny or even interesting.

dull, dull, dull

[Waerdnotte · 2/10 · 24 October 2006]

As a piece of drama this offered absolutely nothing in terms of interest or entertainment. Actors all did a fairly solid job but the script and the narrative where derivative, unexciting and dull. Let's face it, the public perception of Craddock was what made her interesting, the reality was that she was just a ghastly old drag queen who really isn't worth the time this film invests in her.

To add to this because I have to write at least ten lines of waffle, her cooking was pretty gruesome too. It was the stench of the upper middle classes offering advice to the great unwashed that was the Craddock-style (and the BBC at the time) and an hour and a half remembrance of a thoroughly dislikable and untalented Daily Telegraph writer is a total waste of British taxpayers money. ( Paid for by the licence fee which of course is a flat tax on all British households). The BBC should find better things to waste our money on.