Back on the big screen... aha!

With Steve Coogan as putupon Stan Laurel and John C Reilly as tubby, overbearing Oliver Hardy, both pictured,

Stan And Ollie has an unusual take on comedy’s most famous double-act.

Produced by BBC Films, the new biopic focuses on a tour of Britain the bowlerhatted duo mounted in 1953. They didn’t know it yet but this was to be their swansong. The turbulent circuit of regional variety halls would unearth long-buried resentments but also remind them what it was that bound them together.

‘It’s a love story between two guys who realise they can’t live without each other,’ explains director Jon S Baird (Filth). Screenwriter Jeff Pope tried to be as fair as possible in how he represented the duo: ‘I have not treated the boys with kid gloves or looked at them through rose-coloured specs,’ he says.

For the actors it presented a big challenge. Not only embodying the deep emotional bond that made the comedy possible but mimicking those distinctive mannerisms that made them Laurel and Hardy. Reilly’s physical transformation is uncanny, with the actor wrapped in a fat suit and given a prosthetic double chin. Coogan was always Baird’s first choice as Laurel, the ‘tortured genius’ who obsessed over the material while the laidback Hardy was off playing golf or betting on horses. Coogan was just as obsessed with Laurel. Says Baird: ‘He’s very serious about playing this guy. Stan Laurel was a workaholic and his life was dedicated to making people laugh. Steve understands how difficult that is.’