Dave Allen at Peace
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
When I was growing up in a London Irish family in the Seventies and Eighties, watching the late Irish comedian Dave Allen’s BBC show Dave Allen at Large was the glue that bound our family. The programme was stuffed full of jokes about God and the Catholic church and whimsical stories about just how he lost that finger. This affectionate film, written by Stephen Russell and starring Aidan Gillen as Allen, addresses the lost finger early on – a childhood accident – before cantering through the comedian’s life, from his childhood bond with his kindly father (Tommy Tiernan) through his early career as a stand-up to success on TV and beyond.
The film’s real interest lies, however, in Allen’s complex relationship with his older brother John (Conleth Hill), who later died of alcoholism. “I’ll always be the funniest man in the pub but you’re a comedian,” John ruefully notes. Gillen plays Allen’s mannerisms and gentle way of skewering the pompous perfectly and, while Russell’s script glosses over some of the complexities of his life, it catches the essence of the man.
It’s followed by a repeat of The Unique Dave Allen, in which he talks about his heroes. Sarah Hughes