Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

The best comedy of 2019

Another year has past and once again it's been a pretty amazing one for comedy across the board, and it's been hard to whittle each category down to a top 10. But here are our suggestions for the best tv, film and live comedy of the year, along with a couple of other lists as well.

"He was pushing some mysterious envelope and he made the public an accomplice," says John Cooper Clarke of Chris Sievey, the restless genius responsible for Timperley's Frank Sidebottom. This is the extraordinary and moving story of the late outsider artist inside the papier-mache head, featuring contributions from collaborators such as Jon Ronson and Mark Radcliffe. As the latter observes, Sievey's antics were somehow extremely silly and extremely clever at the same time.

DVD review: Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

This is a first class documentary about a minor popular culture icon who deserves to be remembered.

Review - Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

This documentary about one the most peculiar of musicians is best described in the words of his most famous creation: "Absolutely fantastic!"

Film review: Being Frank

One of the best documentaries of the last decade, even if you've never heard of Chris Sievey before it's an absolute must watch, as it's an amazing insight in to a truly unique individual.

GCHQ cracks Frank Sidebottom's secret codes

Intelligence agency GCHQ has cracked secret codes hidden by the man behind cult comedy character Frank Sidebottom.

Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story review

It''s not entirely clear whether Chris Sievey would approve of this documentary. He always insisted on remaining entirely separate from his alter-ego Frank Sidebottom almost to the extent, it is suggested, of schizophrenia. He hated being seen without the papier-maché head, with bandmate Rick Sarko believing that was because he had an almost pathological fear of being seen as a normal human being.

Watching the new documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, it makes sense that the titular performer behind cult entertainer Frank Sidebottom - a mainstay of the alternative comedy scene in the late 80s and early 90s- would choose a giant papier-mâché head for his alter ego: Sievey's anarchic brain was fizzing with so many ideas that his own head clearly had no hope of containing them. That's the never-quite-stated thesis of Steve Sullivan's wonderful trawl through the late artist's extensive career. Unlike the Michael Fassbender-starring Frank, which used Sidebottom as a jumping off-point for a funny, poignant, fictional exploration of the connection between artistic genius and mental illness, the new film isn't all that interested in rehashing that debate. Instead it constructs a portrait of someone who couldn't have lived an ordinary life if he'd tried. And he did try. He was married, had kids, worked factory jobs - but with access to the vast audio and video archives that Sievey kept of his tireless efforts to make it as a legitimate pop star, we get to see how a relentlessly creative mind can thrive, even in a place as seemingly banal as his hometown of Timperley. It's not always a flattering portrait. Nor is it glamorous. And yet it's precisely this unvarnished look at a way of life that continues to be mythologised and romanticised that gives the film added power.

Film review: Being Frank

Stories on the seductive power of fame are omnipresent in film. Focusing on one's disastrous downfall, all suffered at their own hands, these tales date back to mythological tales of Icarus.

Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story review

This documentary about Sievey's wacky comic creation makes a good case for bestowing posthumous national treasure status.