Hughie Green, Most Sincerely opens in 1958 with Hughie meeting Elaine Yates for the first time. He is on the road with the stage version of Double Your Money, the show you can see as a modest ancestor of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire though with a thousand quid at stake. A brief affair follows, Elaine produces a daughter called Paula (yes, that Paula), and only when Paula is grown does Hughie learn he’s her father.
This programme is one of four in The Curse of Comedy strand, each concentrating on a 1960s figure with a messy private life. All four are well made, and all four leave you liking their subjects less than you did going in. That feels deliberate rather than mean-spirited. The point, it seems to me, is not to demolish but to be unsentimental about the machinery of popular success.
Production Details
UK / BBC Four / 1x80 minute episode / Broadcast 2 April 2008
Writer: Tony Basgallop
Production Design: Patrick Bill
Music: Joe Walker
Executive Producer: John Yorke
Producer: Ben Evans
Director: Daniel Percival
Main Cast
Trevor Eve as Hughie Green
Mark Benton as Jess Yates
Kim Thomson as Claire Green
Kate Williams as Mrs Carr
Danny Webb as Noel Botham
Jack Armstrong as Young Hughie
Emma Stansfield as Elaine Yates
Ian Cairns as Major Green
Victoria Pugh as Young Housewife
Christopher Gillman-Wells as Young Christopher
Mared Swain as Female Fan
Megan Convery as Young Linda
Nick Dunning as Vic Hallums
Vicky Ogden as Ordinary Housewife
George Potts as Male Contestant
Will Thorp as TV Executive
Taet Chesterton as Lena Zavaroni
Jasper Jacob as Jeremy Isaacs
Carmen Du Sautoy as Christina Shaples
Julia Ford as June Laverick
Deborah Cornelius as Linda Green
Tim Wallers as Christopher Green
John Warnaby as Dr Halshaw
River George as Paula Yates
Laurence Belcher as Boy Contestant
Glynne Steele as Mr Reed
Olivia Darnley as Receptionist
