In his day Hughie Green was as famous in Britain as Simon Cowell is nowadays . I do remember him from OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS and also remember my mother hating him with a vengeance but never understood the hate . In fact one day when he turned up in Rothesay to visit Lena Zavaroni a large amount of the population came to greet him when he arrived at the ferry . In later years however I understood why a " celebrity " would be so disliked . Even watching him in footage he comes across as smug , egocentric and one wonders if his catchphrase " I mean that most sincerely folks " wasn't irony at its most appropriate ?
MOST SINCERELY chronicles the success of Green and one instantly becomes aware how difficult it is to portray someone so unlikable . In many ways it suffers the same fault as RAGING BULL in that the audience can't empathise let alone find any redeeming qualities in the protagonist . It says something when actor Trever Eve - who by the way is superb in this - had reservations about " portraying an irredeemable monster "
There's also a couple of other problems . One is that the screenplay seems to stick too closely to the 2001 documentary THE REAL HUGHIE GREEN . We see Green get in to an argument with Thames boss Jeremy Isaacs about holding an edition of OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS from a nuclear submarine base and we see a recreation of the jaw dropping moment where Green goes in to a pseudo Churchillian rant about how 1976 should be a watershed year where Britain can become great again . Compelling but what is the backstory to Green's politics ?
Another problem is the inclusion of rather explicit sex scenes . Considering Green was born in 1920 some of the scenes must have placed him well in to middle age when they happened . Believe me the idea any narcissistic middle aged drunk having sex ( Usually with someone's wife or someone young enough to be his daughter ) is squirm inducing at the best of times but if it's Hughie Green then implication alone would have been more than enough
In all this isn't really a hatchet job on a famous personality from yesteryer because you can't really find anything even mediocre to say about the man . Everyone seemed to hate him and bare in mind he was merely a TV talent show presenter where as at least TV villains in the 21st Century like Simon Cowell did spend many years building up success before they became famous . If the actor playing the role claims " He was a truly irredeemable monster " then that's all you need to know
MOST SINCERELY chronicles the success of Green and one instantly becomes aware how difficult it is to portray someone so unlikable . In many ways it suffers the same fault as RAGING BULL in that the audience can't empathise let alone find any redeeming qualities in the protagonist . It says something when actor Trever Eve - who by the way is superb in this - had reservations about " portraying an irredeemable monster "
There's also a couple of other problems . One is that the screenplay seems to stick too closely to the 2001 documentary THE REAL HUGHIE GREEN . We see Green get in to an argument with Thames boss Jeremy Isaacs about holding an edition of OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS from a nuclear submarine base and we see a recreation of the jaw dropping moment where Green goes in to a pseudo Churchillian rant about how 1976 should be a watershed year where Britain can become great again . Compelling but what is the backstory to Green's politics ?
Another problem is the inclusion of rather explicit sex scenes . Considering Green was born in 1920 some of the scenes must have placed him well in to middle age when they happened . Believe me the idea any narcissistic middle aged drunk having sex ( Usually with someone's wife or someone young enough to be his daughter ) is squirm inducing at the best of times but if it's Hughie Green then implication alone would have been more than enough
In all this isn't really a hatchet job on a famous personality from yesteryer because you can't really find anything even mediocre to say about the man . Everyone seemed to hate him and bare in mind he was merely a TV talent show presenter where as at least TV villains in the 21st Century like Simon Cowell did spend many years building up success before they became famous . If the actor playing the role claims " He was a truly irredeemable monster " then that's all you need to know