Little Crackers
Little Crackers

Little Crackers

  • TV comedy drama
  • Sky One
  • 2010 - 2012
  • 35 episodes (3 series)

Festive seasons of autobiographical short films written by and starring some of Britain's top comedy stars, including Stephen Fry and Barbara Windsor. Stars Chris O'Dowd, Catherine Tate, Julian Barratt, Stephen Fry, Kathy Burke and more.

Press clippings Page 2

Sky's series of one-off comedy-drama vignettes, created by talent more often seen in front of the camera shoots back to the early '60s for Alison Steadman's The Autograph. Though only ten minutes long, her offering sees her playing with fire a little as she recalls seeing the Beatles at the Cavern and getting an autograph from Paul and John. Depicting the Beatles on film can be a recipe for howling disaster, with any slight imperfection in costume, accent or playing style (right down to Ringo's distinctive way of flicking his wrist) showing up to the legion of sad Beatles nerdlings out there (this writer included). Steadman's short fails hopelessly on this count (George Harrison's guitar tone sounds more like a Strat than a Gretsch, for one thing), but it's still a rather charming tale that involves the unique sight of Steadman herself playing her own mother.

Oliver Keens, Time Out, 17th December 2012

This cornucopia of delightful mini dramas continues with a double helping of cockle-warmers. First up, actress Alison Steadman plays her own mother in a cool episode from her teenage years in Liverpool. It's 1962 and the young Steadman has to pull the wool over her mum's eyes if she's to see the young Beatles at the legendary Cavern Club. Hot on Steadman's kitten heels comes comedian Dylan Moran as a dad who finds himself way out of his comfort zone as he tries to connect with his teenage son, the victim of a street mugging. Catch the making-of films that follow too - they're great fun.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Carol Carter, Metro, 17th December 2012

Sharon Horgan: The black streak in everything I've done

The comedian and presenter on her convent education, ageing in high definition, and the art of plucking a turkey.

Elizabeth Day, The Observer, 16th December 2012

Before Ab Fab and national treasurehood, Joanna Lumley was in some pretty ropey things and before that she was a mildly exploited swingin' London model. Her directorial debut in the Little Crackers series looked back at that period but what charm it possessed was spoiled by the unnecessary behind-the-scenes report which followed, adding nothing but gush.

Aidan Smith, The Scotsman, 16th December 2012

In her at once frothy and bleak episode of Little Crackers - a Sky1 strand of short autobiographical dramas directed by a different star each night - Joanna Lumley sought to persuade us that as a teenage model she had been a) gawky and shy, and b) routinely called ugly by photographers.

These two ideas may sound no more believable than wrestling, but in interviews she's insisted they're true. Apparently in the Sixties all female models were taunted by the men taking their picture. "Close those legs," sneered the photographer in Lumley's short, "I know you're not used to it."

In those days, fashion photographer was the ideal job for a misogynist, allowing him simultaneously to ogle and bully women without fear of reprisal. In Lumley's short, though, there was reprisal, in the form of a magazine editor who fired the photographer after he bullied the teenage heroine. The editor was played by Lumley. Effectively she'd arrived from the future to save herself.

Michael Deacon, The Telegraph, 15th December 2012

After the success of Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy and Kathy Burke's Walking And Talking it was hard not to expect big things from Sky1's latest lot of Little Crackers.

But I can't see any of this year's first batch making it to a full series. Joanna Lumley's much-hyped look back at her early modelling days was particularly uninspiring. But with efforts from the likes of Paul O'Grady, Sharon Horgan and Jason Manford still to come this week perhaps we shouldn't give up all hope just yet.

Ian Hyland, Daily Mail, 15th December 2012

The Little Cracker series of autobiographical tales continues with Alison Steadman's sweetly written and charmingly realised story of a teenage encounter with The Beatles at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Sixteen-year-old Alison (Lauren McQueen) and her pals are excited about a lunchtime gig by The Beatles even though her mother (Steadman) doesn't want her to go. But drawn by the prospect of seeing the moptops and the promise of free soup and a bread roll, the girls head to the club and afterwards even manage to get John and Paul's autographs while waiting in the post office. Straight afterwards, comic Dylan Moran recalls a story about being mugged after his first job interview and the effect the incident had on his father.

Gerard O'Donovan, The Telegraph, 14th December 2012

From Grandma's House to The Thick Of It, Bafta-winning actress Rebecca Front has a genius for playing comedy characters tinted with a tragic aura. In her autobiographical Little Cracker of a drama we see the same quality in Front's own life, with Young Rebecca (Lucy Hutchinson) dealing with some heavy-duty emotions by refusing to go to school - until sympathetic head teacher, Miss Dyson (Front herself), steps in to help.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Carol Carter, Metro, 11th December 2012

Sky's seasonal Little Crackers series returned with an autobiographical short about a Sixties model, directed by Joanna Lumley, who took a small cameo role herself as a fashion magazine grande dame. "Baby, Be Blonde" was an innocent affair, as guileless as a teen-magazine photo-romance. It told the story of a Lumley-like ingénue, briefly tempted by the magical glamour conferred on her by her new blond wig (suddenly men are whistling at her in the street) but then rebelling against the oafish sexism of a Baileyesque photographer, in the interests of sisterhood and solidarity. Lumley went through all this at the time, so I guess she's got the details right. But I still found it tricky to buy the notion of the hottest young snapper on the block doing a shoot for a knitting pattern catalogue.

Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 11th December 2012

It's the turn of The Thick of It's Rebecca Front to head up tonight's short comedy from Sky. Like the majority of these gently amusing films, Rainy Days and Mondays is a little self-indulgent in its nostalgia, trading as they do on their creator's childhood (Chris O'Dowd's effort spawned the brilliant Moone Boy), but the strength and breadth of talent involved make it an enduringly intriguing project.

In her episode, a young Rebecca develops a death-anxiety complex that belies her years and stops her going to school. These films tend not to delve far beneath the surface of the sometimes dark subject matter, leaving their success resting almost wholly on the subtlety of the young actor at the centre. In this case, Lucy Hutchinson does an impressive job of capturing both overbearing childhood dread and the magical moment its shadow lifts.

Rachel Aroesti, Time Out, 11th December 2012

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