User reviews

There is no villain of this story - Hattie and her husband John are almost strangers in their own home from the way they are portrayed, and none of this need happen if they had learned to communicate, rather than pass like ships in the night. Then along comes a beautiful man, with issues of his own, who gives Hattie something she's been lacking for a long time - the belief that she was a beautiful, sexual being.

And regarding Hattie's weight: she is shown in this to be unhappy with her size, but being big gave her work that she would not have had otherwise. One can sling mud at her, call her horrible names, but the public encouraged her to stay that way.

The sensitive handling of this piece does exactly what it should - it shows that it was a sad situation where people failed to talk to one another and took things, and each other, for granted.

Lovely drama about the complex love life of the comedy legend that was Hattie Jacques, wonderfully played by Ruth Jones and good support by Bathurst as her husband

As with so many biopics it covers the basics but not especially accurately. The lives of people are complicated and impossible to cover in 90 mins so its to be expected but there are quite a few issues with this one.

There have been a few dramas recently based on the lives of the great British comedians of the 50's and 60's and Hattie is one of the best I've seen.

The acting is first rate, especially from the three principals. The period setting is well captured in the interior scenes - there are very few exterior shots, probably due to the budget. Another reviewer makes much of Hattie being a chubby lady but she was undoubtedly sexy and more so in real life than for the characters she played on screen. This is something else the film conveys very well.

The script is excellent - the real stand-out feature of the production. It's multi-layered and pays homage to the Carry On style of double entendre and elevates it to a much higher level. "Hattie" avoids being seedy but doesn't shy away from the details of this most unusual love story. Poor old John Le Mesurier! I'm off to form his appreciation society.

A first class drama telling the story of Hattie's affair with driver and lodger John Schofield.

As a kid I grew up on The Carry on films, adoring Hattie Jacques, growing up believing that the stern faced actress was frigid and somewhat dowdy, little knowing of the passions that burned away. Ever feminine, I will forever adore Hattie, events here won't change my opinion of her.

John Schofield seemed to have a profound affect on her, Adrian Turner is great in the role, they don't miss a moment to show off his ripped body.

Ruth Jones does a great job, she makes Hattie sweet, conflicted and incredibly feminine. Great job from Bathurst also.

John Le Mesurier has always struck me as such a sad character, adorable, but definitely somewhat withdrawn, I wonder if this is exactly what he was like. Could anyone exist in such a situation?

Loved it, 9/10

I'd love to know what John's car was.

Last year I watched a BBC dramatisation of doomed comedian Tony Hancock's affair with his best friend John LeMesurier's wife Joan, little realising that this was the second time the urbane, slightly effete but popular actor, later best known as Sgt Wilson in the long running comedy series "Dad's Army, had been cuckolded. Even more surprising was to learn that his first wife was the apparently sex-less, matronly Hattie Jacques and that her affair, as well as being torrid in the extreme, was with a much younger, handsome and as the phrase is today "ripped" man, her driver John Schofield. Worse yet, she went along with her lover's idea of moving LeMesurier up to the attic room of their marital home so that Schofeld could move full time into her bed and even let LeMesurier take the blame for their inevitable divorce to protect her family image from being tarnished.

Such a remarkable story, featuring the lives of two of Britain's best-loved actors of the 60's and 70's, was always going to have a high curiosity value bordering on prurience but failed, for me, by not taking sides and playing it all too neutrally. Perhaps this was due to pressure from the family and friends of the late Ms Jacques, I would imagine, but in trying to dress her liaison with the otherwise spivvy, on-the-make Schofield as some grand love affair, both are let off far too lightly. Remember that this triangle was played out with two young children in attendance too and unsavoury doesn't even begin to describe the showbiz goings-on here. We're almost directed to have sympathy for the self-deprecating jolly fat lady getting herself a young bloke and her emotional conflict in deciding which of the two Johns to plump (sorry) for when in fact her complicity in the goings-on here is morally reprehensible.

Thus I found it an awkward watch and came away from it by not respecting or liking any of the three leads, even LeMesurier, so much is his "door-mat" impression played out. The acting is good however, Ruth Jones doing a not quite lady-like enough impression of Jacques but otherwise carrying off the physical and vocal transformation well. Robert Bathurst doesn't look much like LeMesurier facially but gets his shrug-shoulders world- weariness down-pat, while Aidan Turner is excellent as the vile Schofield, the unwelcome cuckoo in the nest. The dialogue I did find to be characterful and subtle, histrionics avoided as the situation progresses.

Life-styles of the rich and famous are always morbidly inviting but on the whole I wish I'd looked the other way, rather like Hattie should have before she started on her ill- considered affair.

Not much happens in this episode, except for Hattie Jacques (Ruth Jones) having an affair with John Davies (Aidan Turner) and eventually leaving her husband John le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst). The real problem lies with le Mesurier, who is so laid back as to be inactive, with little or no skill in the bed department. Compare with Davies, who shows the capacity of a stag in the way he ruts Jacques in the bedroom.

So far, so good. But that's mostly what the play is about. We learn little about Jacques's career, not that of le Mesurier, while Davies - played by an actor more celebrated for getting his kit off in POLDARK - is nothing more than a coarse yob. We learn at the end of the episode that eventually left Jacques for someone else, which seems vaguely appropriate for such an itinerant figure.

Jones gives a creditable impersonation of Jacques, but le Mesurier as portrayed by Bathurst is nothing more than a wet blanket, completely unlike the man we came to know as Sereeant Wilson in DAD'S ARMY. He lacks any strength of character, even when Joan rescues him from a potentially difficult situation as the third man in a love triangle.

I just finished watching Hattie which is apparently a bio-pic about Hattie Jacques.

Now, the movie was average. But what annoys me with these bio-pics is they are supposed to be the life stories of the people they are filming about, but in most cases there is so much crap added that just isn't true.

But being a fan of the Carry On movies, I had to see it. I have seen the Kenneth Williams bio-pic and Cor Blimey! which were both quite good... but this just wasn't as good.

This movie was not really about her life, just about her affair with her much younger house mate. She still loves her husband and doesn't want him to move out even though he knows about the affair.

It is very uncomfortable to watch some scenes as it is quite sad to see her husband being treated the way he does. He seemed like a nice guy and just didn't want to lose his wife so was willing to share her!

There are a few scenes in the film that were re-created on the Carry On Cabby set, which was interesting to see and fun to watch. But all in all I was disappointed in the movie. I was hoping we would know more about Hattie and more about her life instead of just her sexual life.

I give this film 5 out of 10...

Not a bad movie, but not what I wanted a film to be. It really didn't have to be about Hattie Jacques, it could have been about anyone.

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Hattie is less of a biopic of the complex Hattie Jacques (Ruth Jones) best known for the Carry On films and in the comedy series Sykes. She was married to the actor John Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst) who at the time was a jobbing actor before he found fame for himself in Dad's Army.

This film focuses on Hattie's affair with chancer John Schofield (Aidan Turner) a used car salesman that Hattie meets in a charity function. He is not put off by Hattie's large size and makes her feel sexy and wanted. In due course he moves into the marital home as the cuckolded John moves into the spare room as Hattie schemes to arrange John to have a relationship with another woman (who he will later marry and then she will have an affair with his friend, Tony Hancock.)

Looking at this again the drama is just facile and tepid. You do not like any of them. The virile stud John, comes across as self pitying who sees Hattie as a meal ticket. (He would later leave her for an Italian heiress.) Hattie is selfish and cruel in treating her husband John and her kids so shabbily. John Le Mesurier who was well regarded in the public's affections has a charming and urbane man is shown here as a wet lettuce.

There was something very awkward about this movie. First of all, Hattie's husband was treated horribly, and what about the kids? What were their feelings about this unhealthy living arrangement. Apparently Hattie and her driver John, had no morals whatsoever. The sex scenes were uncomfortable and I forwarded through every single one of them. It would be the same if you watched a fat older man with a younger attractive woman. Not that it doesn't happen or that it's necessarily wrong, and I know we shouldn't base everything on physical beauty, but it just wasn't very watchable or aesthetic. If this is truly how the lives of these individuals were, I'm sad for all of them.

Aiden Turner is really handsome, and I only watched it because of him, but I forwarded through a lot of it. After watching it, I watched Poldark again to wash the bad taste of his character in this movie out of my mouth. I'm sorry, I just couldn't find any redeeming qualities in this movie, except see the mess it made of everyone's lives, and learn from it.

I found the story of the movie very disappointing, even if it was based on true event........... being in an affair is normal in U. S culture, but the thing frustated me the most was, what happened after husband learning about the affair...........I mean Hattie treated her husband like a door matt, but with sweet expressions. At one point she is telling, she didn't stop loving her husband, and simultaneously she continued the affair after saying apologizing to her husband.............. I mean how cruel she was and emotionless for her husband. The fact is, she was not in love with her husband, even she was saying, she love him, that's a lie..........or she has different definition for 'Love'...........she only had mercy feeling for her husband.

I didn't see a little bit of guilty in her eyes or feelings of shame of being adulterous. She was smiling helplessness of her husband on his back.

I mean, I am not diplomatic or hypocrite like people who are admiring hattie here.........I like to say the truth, thae way it is......

Women here is selfish, undignified, cruel and shameless. Not in love with husband.

Husband here is coward and fearful to loose his wife. He doesn't even have self-respect, he loved his wife a lot.

Movie was good, but this real life story was really disgusting.

I don't know this is a 100% fact based story or partly fiction, however I don't think the story is nice for making a film. A handsome young man falling in love with an older chubby married lady who is 10 years more older than him?? If that is true, he has a rare taste. A husband will accept such an affair from his wife and even would like to downgrade himself to protect her reputation?? If it is true, he is a poor and stupid man. I do respect peoples's own choice for their own life. I simply do not see any charming point of this affair, and do not see any charming characteristics of the three main characters. There are thousands of beautiful love stories and incredible sex scandals in both the up and low society which can supply much better charming and exciting story lines for a movie.

It is really kidding that this film gets such high score in the user rating. What you can find in this stupid awful film are love scene of a handsome good looking young man with a chubby fat older woman. I am glad that I had first finished my dinner before I watched this stupid movie.

Take my advice, don't waste your time for such a film with awful story. Why should one waste one and a half hour to watch a cheap ordinary affair among a young man, an older chubby unfaithful wife and a poor husband anyway. The only thing which has shined my eyes is the actor who plays the handsome young man role.

Unless you are a fan of this actress Hattie and like to gossip about her love and sex life, otherwise this film has not much to offer.