The Rack Pack
- TV comedy drama
- BBC iPlayer
- 2016
- 1 episode
Comedy drama of the world of snooker in the 1970s and 80s, and the rivalry between Alex Higgins and Steve Davis. Stars Luke Treadaway, Will Merrick, Kevin Bishop, Nichola Burley and James Bailey
Press clippings
Comedy-drama about the rise of snooker and the fall of Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, who ignited during the power cut-ridden 70s, a symbol of the reckless flamboyance of the decade. He is undone by Steve Davis, protege of Barry Hearn. It's a story frequently told in one-liners - "Flair player? That just means you miss." However, Luke Treadaway brilliantly conveys Higgins' auto-destructiveness, while Will Merrick eventually gets beyond Davis's cultivated robo-nerd image.
David Stubbs, The Guardian, 30th April 2016iPlayer snooker film The Rack Pack to be shown on BBC Two
The Rack Pack, BBC iPlayer's first ever comedy drama feature film, is to be broadcast on BBC Two following its success online.
British Comedy Guide, 20th April 2016The Rack Pack: Did it score a maximum break?
Unveiled on the evening of the Masters Final (and the iPlayer team offer their huge gratitude to Ronnie O'Sullivan for winning so quickly everyone could watch both), the film has generated a huge response on social media.
Steve Williams, BBC Blogs, 5th February 2016The Rack Pack: BBC iPlayer review
The Rack Pack is presented as a comedy-drama and whilst full of witty one liners, it is also a tear-jerker.
Flo McMullen, The Student Newspaper, 28th January 2016The Rack Pack: why we all loved snooker
The arrival of new drama The Rack Pack on the iPlayer prompted much discussion at Standard Issue. It turns out, everyone used to love a bit of Golden Age snooker. No really.
Sophie Scott, Sally-Anne Hayward, Ruth Bratt & Mickey Noonan, Standard Issue, 21st January 2016Retro 80s nostalgia delivered in a distinctly modern format: The Rack Pack, a comedy-drama reliving snooker's heyday, debuted this week as an iPlayer-only film. "I think snooker is going to be big - bigger even than wrestling," a geezerish Barry Hearn (Kevin Bishop) told a meek Steve "interesting" Davis (Will Merrick) as he signed him up and unleashed his plans for a baize of glory, taking the sport from smoke-filled snooker halls to, er, smoke-filled tournament halls and massive TV-ratings success. Opposite the milk-loving Davis, Luke Treadaway sunk his teeth into the Alex "Hurricane" Higgins story, bringing just enough warmth and pathos to nudge the film past a cartoon portrait of the hard-living People's Champion. "I'm a snooker player - in the end, you're always on your own," he admitted.
Richard Vine, The Guardian, 19th January 2016The picaresque world of 70s and 80s snooker was so obviously ripe for retrofitted TV drama that the only surprise is that this feature-length tragicomedy is an iPlayer-only affair. Luke Treadaway and Will Merrick enjoy themselves as broad, even scurrilous, caricatures of Alex Higgins and Steve Davis, respectively. Higgins is cast as snooker's darkly irresistible demon who self-destructs even as Davis, in cahoots with ruthless promoter Barry Hearn, is taking the game into every living room. This narrative thrust is a slight over-simplification but does make for high drama.
Phil Harrison, The Guardian, 18th January 2016The Rack Pack: is the BBC trying to snooker Netflix?
By screening this comedy drama exclusively on iPlayer, the BBC puts itself up against rival streaming sites such as Netflix. But what's the motivation for this off-piste transmission?
Mark Lawson, The Guardian, 18th January 2016The Rack Pack: How Britain fell in love with snooker
If the lyrics of the 1986 hit Snooker Loopy stir fond memories of that improbable period when snooker was the biggest thing on TV and the waistcoated men who played it were household names, you'll enjoy The Rack Pack.
Neil Armstrong, The Telegraph, 17th January 2016The Rack Pack review
As a comedy, The Rack Pack is much more successful.
Louisa Mellor, Den Of Geek, 17th January 2016