The Rack Pack

Just before the start of the 1982 snooker world championship, Alex Higgins gave an interview to a newspaper. He criticised Steve Davis as staid and downplayed his own chances for the tournament. Davis as defending champion was knocked out in the first round and Higgins went on to win the tournament.

Ten years earlier Higgins was the youngest world snooker champion, a bolt of lightning in a sport known to be slow and played by old men. My older brother used to rave about Higgins in the 1970s.

Then again if you watch this film the only person that raved about Higgins were people who never met him or got to know him. Higgins was a drinker, drug taker, womaniser and a bona fide hell raiser. I think this film just showed us the edited highlights and a toned down version at that. There was a disgusting true incident where he threatened to send the paramilitary terrorists to sort out Dennis Taylor that was wisely excised from this film.

Nerd Alert Warning: I saw Steve Davis when he made his snooker television début in Pot Black in 1978 where he played Fred Davis. I saw him do the first televised 147 break which was on ITV and hence not commentated by Ted Lowe as shown here. I even remember his chat show 'A frame with Davis.' Actually I am a fan of Steve Davis even though he is a Tory supporter.

This drama made Davis out to be a lot more nerdy than he was at the time but I think it was just to add contrast to the characters. Barry Hearn as portrayed here was a lot more jovial than the hard headed businessman he is and you have to be ruthless if you enter the world of boxing promotion which Hearn did in the mid 1980s. I did think the actor playing Higgins was just too much of the caricature of the Higgins we know from the press and television although I was amazed by the potting skills of the actors or it might had been clever use of CGI.

Of course there was a lot more shades of greys in real life back in the days when snooker took off in the 1980s. We just see Higgins and Jimmy White as the bad boys of snooker and the press were more interested in the rivalry between White and Davis who were the emerging new generation.

Yet during the era many snooker players lived life to the hilt with booze, drugs and women. Even Cliff Thorburn shown here as dull and with a dodgy Canadian accent was exposed as a cocaine user.

Still a celebration of a time when snooker was more than a load of old balls.

From Treadaway's accent and mannerisms, to the clever interposition of excerpts of TV commentary from those early 1980s matches.. this film is (like the Steve Davis era it portrays) universally professional.

The characters are spot on, the emotional story played with respect, but without deference and above all (in capturing the effectiveness of this piece) the snooker sequences are brilliant! If you go onto Youtube and watch Higgins' 1982 Semi-Final "break of the tournament", then straight after you watch Treadaway jerking and swaying to the same beat you will see what I mean. How on this planet they recreated that blue to the top corner??? - The best thing I've seen for at least a year!

I grew up watching snooker just as it boomed on TV and the Higgins / Davis rivalry came to prominence, so I thoroughly enjoyed this warts and all dramatisation of the relationship between the mercurial Irishman and the stolid Essex boy in the early 80's. I like my sporting and musical heroes to be mavericks so no prizes for guessing where my sympathies lay and from the production here, I suspect that was true for the director too. Unquestionably an often far from pleasant man, an alcoholic with a foul tongue and short temper, Higgins, like that other genius Belfast boy, George Best, always seemed to have one finger poised over the self-destruct button, treating his life like one big game of snakes and ladders, where the falls outnumbered the rises not only in number but in scale.

Sporting rivalry always makes for good copy, as witness down the years Borg and McEnroe, Hunt and Lauda, Ali and Frazier to name but three, where one is usually undramatic and coolly professional, the other as being flamboyant and rebellious. Higgins at his best could beat anyone on the green baize, but with his showmanship, temper outbursts and alcoholic intake all distracting him at times, he could never match the discipline, professionalism and steadiness of a Davis. If Higgins was the self-proclaimed People's Champion, then Davis was the Grannie's Favourite.

This BBC movie accurately captures the 70's and 80's era as snooker came out of the smoky back rooms and, its image greatly cleaned up, onto TV screens as the favourite armchair sport of the nation in the mid 80's. With a largely contemporary rock music soundtrack in the background, although many songs are haphazardly placed in the wrong year, excellent recreations of the big matches themselves and above all a terrific performance by Luke Treadaway as the compelling Higgins, I was certainly transported back to my youth eagerly following the Hurricane's wayward progress in both his sport and his troubled life.

With sharp dialogue, including many good jokes and fine acting support by Will Merrick as the "interesting" Davis and especially Kevin Bishop as the latter's Kingmaker manager Barry Hearn, this was as riveting as watching Higgins compiling a break. I didn't believe everything I saw, especially the scenes where Higgins begs Hearns to be his manager or Davis talking Higgins out of his depression at losing a match when well into his decline, but I recognised enough other scenes and can allow some dramatic licence to heighten the drama.

In the final summing up I'd prefer to watch Higgins play than Davis, but after the match I'm sure I'd prefer to be in the latter's company. I'm sure they played down some of the Irishman's excesses, but being deceased, he probably deserved the respect this fine film affords him.

And just as a postscript, I personally think they should have added his name to Best's for the naming of Belfast's airport, his star burned as brightly and briefly as his footballing near-contemporary.

Just watched the Rack Pack on iPlayer and thought it was great, very amusing and moving in turns. The performances were very good, but I can't help feeling they made Steve Davis seem a little bit too nerdy in the early days, asking the manager of the first snooker club about the pockets and the slate for instance. Whilst I'm not denying Alex Higgins' talent, I did think the programme focused more on him, and made him the real main character. Personally, I was never that fond of him as a 'character' and have always admired Steve Davis for the way he handled himself, even moreso now as a respected presenter and commentator of snooker. Also, I'm sure all the real life people gave their approval to the portrayals on film, but I don't think Jimmy White has done himself any favours by agreeing to how he was portrayed in this drama. Finally, these 'real life' docu-dramas always leave me wondering how accurate they are, was Higgins really so rude to Cliff Thorburn and his wife, so that Thorburn laid into him physically. But overall, very enjoyable and watchable, and very well acted.

Great idea for a story and was immediately interested but from when I first watched the trailer, I thought, why oh why do they hire English actors to play Ulstermen? Plenty of good Irish actors out there and Luke Treadaway just isn't up to it. Perhaps those with little Irish contact will not notice but it disappointed me from the start.

Apart from that it was quite entertaining and a glimpse into the start of snooker as we know it. I met Barry Hearn around 84 as a young kid. I wish I would've met Alex Higgins. Hope Alex is right and the miracle happens and Jimmy does finally become world champion!. I hope his daughter gets paid for this too. The film is about Alex and he's dead, she should get royalties