Hancock & Joan

This was a superbly well crafted TV drama with cracking performances form both leads that made your heart go out to both characters even though you could not help but see the banality of their relationship and the selfishness both of them showed to all those who loved them. Stott and Peake are both outstanding and I hope they receive credit and praise for their performances (it is good to see Peake moving on from 'Shameless' and I for one never expected such a quality performance of restraint from her). The depiction of Tony Hancock's affair with Joan is not pleasant viewing as most of us will know the outcome from the start and it is certainly not pleasant watching people fall into a circle of disaster all caused by one man's impending sense of doom thoroughly fuelled by chronic alcoholism, and you do really feel for the people around them, especially Joan's husband John (another excellent performance by Alex Jennings). Hightly effective viewing which achieves all it sets out to do.