BBC Four's 'Hattie' captivates 1.6m

A BBC Four drama on the life of Carry On actress Hattie Jacques was seen by more than 1.6 million on Wednesday evening, the latest audience data has revealed.

It takes a special kind of love to move into the lodger's room in the attic while your wife makes hay with her fancy man in the master bedroom. But that was the peculiar domestic set-up at the conflicted heart of Hattie, the true - yes, true - story of Carry On comedy legend Hattie Jacques.

Ruth Jones certainly looked the part of Jacques, all twinkly eyes and comfortable cleavage, her sunny smile masking the frustration of a career cul-de-sac. 'I know my casting; I'm the frigid fat girl,' she complained, acknowledging her role as the nation's favourite chubby, a 1960s Dawn French, if you like.

But though she gave a good impression of warmth, Jones's Hattie strayed a touch too close to heartless bitch for this remarkable story to fully convince. The heart of the tale belonged to wronged husband John Le Mesurier, played by Robert Bathurst with just the right measure of unqualified love and ruffled dignity. 'He's too vague to be unhappy,' claimed Hattie, granting herself licence to cheat, but Bathurst's nuanced performance turned Le Mesurier's vagueness into a self-protective shield.

As a period piece Hattie worked superbly, its glimpses of Carry On film sets, with Marcia Warren scene-stealing as an embittered bit-parter ('I'm sick of this batty old lady s***') a diverting treat. But we didn't get enough of the self-esteem issues that bedevilled Jacques and led her to jeopardise a happy marriage by falling for a devilishly handsome wheeler dealer who made her squeal between the sheets. She fell rather too easily.

Desperate Romantic Aiden Turner certainly looked the part, all moody scowl and hairy chest, but his gor-blimey accent was comedy working class. 'I'm not a bit of rough!' he exploded but that's exactly how he came across, fine for a lusty leg-over but hardly a prospective long-term partner. Which was why Hattie kept her husband in the house to talk to, during the intervals between the sex olympics.

As I said, peculiar. It fell apart when Le Mesurier met a new love, though everyone remained remarkably civilised, and Hattie's bit of rough ultimately left her. It was all quietly sad and a noble attempt to tell a tricky tale. But I never quite fell for it.

Hattie Jacques: How we filmed her bittersweet tale

We all felt it was time to look at a woman in comedy and it would be interesting to portray a comic whose life was more colourful off screen than her roles ever suggested.

Hattie Jacques's career as a comic actress saw her appear in 14 Carry On films and build a long-term working partnership and friendship with Eric Sykes. But this focuses on her marriage to Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier, which was interrupted when she had an affair with a cabbie and moved him into the marital bed, with Le Mesurier moving into the attic room upstairs. That Jacques and Le Mesurier remained on good terms is testament to Jacques' magnetic, scrumptious warmth, which actress Ruth Jones captures here beautifully.

Ooh, matron! The real-life bed-hopping antics of Hattie Jacques were a far cry from the sex-starved battle-axe she played in the Carry On films.

Gavin and Stacey's Ruth Jones pours herself into a series of shiny sixties frocks and some sexy corsets for this handsome one-off biopic. Meanwhile Aidan Turner - of Being Human and Desperate Romantics fame - is transformed after a run-in with the hair-straighteners into her toyboy, bit of rough John Schofield.

When Hattie divorced Dad's Army star
John Le Mesurier (played by a very well-cast Robert Bathurst) in 1965, it was reported that he had cheated on her.

In fact, the mild-mannered Le Mesurier was the innocent party while Hattie had been living the best of both worlds - moving her husband upstairs to the attic, and her lover - a cockney car-salesman - into her marital bed.

It doesn't exactly show Hattie in a favourable light. How could she do it to the lovely Le Mesurier? As she explains to a girlfriend while Schofield hunks about the garden, bare-chested in shorts: "Ooh, look. Him! With me!"

Ruth Jones is mesmerising as Hattie Jacques, the beloved comic actor and Carry On star, who became part of a domestic ménage with her adored husband John Le Mesurier and a sexy younger man, John Schofield. The story is irresistible: Schofield (played by Being Human's Aidan Turner) is a second-hand car dealer who meets Hattie after a charity event while she's filming Carry On Cabbie and the two are quickly in the grip of an electrifying sexual passion. Bizarrely, even incredibly, Schofield moves into the Le Mesurier family home and the marital bed, with John Le Mesurier banished to the lodger's room in the attic. Yet Stephen Russell's script judges no one as it reveals a marriage that, in its own strange way, was rock-solid: Hattie and Le Mesurier shared a lifelong devotion after their divorce. Ever the gentleman, Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst) takes the blame for the break-up. Hattie is a touching drama that, for once, doesn't perform a hatchet job on an adored British comedy figure.

Television Review: Hattie

Hattie is a neatly scripted drama, drawing the viewer closer to the persona that was Hattie Jacques while also reflecting the love and affection she had for her family and life.

The Carry On star and much-loved comic actress Hattie Jacques might have often been cast as a stern matron, a battle-axe even, but Stephen Russell's bittersweet drama reveals a lustier, naughtier side to her character. There are elements of artistic licence in his storyline and Hattie might have benefited if it had offered a broader spectrum to Jacques's life, but this tightly focused film is driven by an exquisite performance by Ruth Jones.

The story details the clandestine affair Hattie embarked on during her marriage to the actor John Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst) at a time when she was at the height of her popularity. Jacques might have hated being overweight (she longed to be a ballerina), but her size merely seems to fuel her desire as she is readily seduced by the young John Schofield (Aidan Turner) - a handsome, rough and ready used car dealer. Desperate to avoid any kind of scandal ("You British never forgive people who like a lot of sex," says her lover), Jacques, not wanting to lose either man, tries to keep the affair a secret. When Schofield becomes a lodger in the Le Mesurier household, she's forced to divide her time between her tolerant husband - who is portrayed, perhaps a little unkindly, as being lovably hapless and never far from a drink - two children and demanding lover.

It's a beautifully observed production with a sharp script, but the highlight is an astute characterisation of a fragile, highly sexed Jacques.

Ruth Jones on her new role as Hattie Jacques

As we begin our interview her conversation is thoughtful, bordering on hesitant, even shy, but at the same time reassuringly down-to-earth. She admits she's quite content to blend into the background when she isn't in character.

Hattie Jacques' son talks about the love triangle

Robin Le Mesurier was ten when his parents told him and his younger brother, Kim, that their marriage was over.