Scott Murray

Film review: The Phantom Of The Open

The Phantom Of The Open is Mark Rylance's vehicle to strut both his comic and dramatic chops and is destined to find an appreciative audience.

The Phantom Of The Open is a very British tribute to failure

Mark Rylance is charming as the golf hoaxer Maurice Flitcroft, but there's not quite enough here to sustain a feature.

The Phantom Of The Open review

As fuzzy and reassuring as a multi-coloured Pringle sweater-vest, The Phantom Of The Open is an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Based on a true story, it stars Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft, a Barrow-in-Furness crane-operator turned novice golfer, who - on multiple occasions - blagged his way into the British Open.

Spoons, a sketch show about relationships co-created by Charlie Brooker, was given the heave-ho after one series by Channel 4, despite positive clippings stretching all the way to America, where the New York Times praised its "tight thematic focus" which "captured the moments - awkward, destructive and banal - of young dating and married life".

Poor ratings were cited. Spoons scooped up around 1.7m viewers at 10pm on Friday nights, which was indeed a big drop from that slot's summer average of three million. Problem was, the fact that the slot had been bookended by Big Brother was totally ignored. With an inflated opinion of the worth of their own slot, the Channel 4 bean counters consigned Spoons to the scrapheap. And of course now that slot struggles to draw more than a million. It's almost enough to make you wish they'd made a decision by actually watching the programme.

According to BBC3 controller Danny Cohen "a huge focus on risk and innovation" is what his channel is all about. Fair dos. Let's have a look at BBC3's comedy output, then. What's on tonight?

12.15: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
12.45: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps

Ach. What about tomorrow?

11.55: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
12.25: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
2.20: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
2.50: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps

Balls to it! Surely there's something good to watch on Friday?

12.40: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
1.10: Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps

Oh for heaven's sake. I'm pretty radged off at being presented with dreck like Two Pints twice a bloody evening while genius like Snuff Box lies dormant - and nobody at the Beeb seems to be worried.