Graham McCann

Born into a working class family in Bristol, England Archie Leach reinvented himself as Cary Grant and became the Hollywood icon for “gentlemanly grace”.

Mr. McCann writes a beautiful biography. He includes the not so pretty parts, the Hollywood suspicions and the many marriages but he includes them as the facts that made Cary Grant who is was. This is not a cutthroat tell-all book. It is a well researched and well written book. It was a pleasure to read.

To me Dave Allan was the funniest comedian I ever saw. He made me laugh till the tears would flow and I would be gasping for air. Years have gone by since I last saw him perform but lately I caught up with him on video on YouTube and it was the same, I laughed till I cried and choked. So I googled his name to see if there were books and found this one and it was the same, I could hear his voice in my head and see him in my mind's eye and I laughed through tears and hiccups. He was definitely show more one of a kind. show less

Not one of Graham McCann's best: I suspect that there is too little to be said about a two series, twelve episode television series to fill a book.
Ironically, this book proves more about McCann's ability than his better opuses. The mark of a good book is not that it answers all one's questions, but that it opens up new areas of uncertainty of which one was not aware prior to the reading there of. Amongst several areas to which this book has sent me in search of enlightenment is the life of show more Georges Feydeau.
One of the other fascinating areas of the book comes towards the end when we are given details of the attempts, mostly American, to make a copy of the series for audiences from abroad. The difficulty for Americans was the character of Basil: almost entirely unpleasant and the most innovative solution was the removal of Basil all together! I would pay much to see this version. show less

This was a lot of fun to read. Everything you ever wanted to know about the making of one of the funniest series ever broadcast. I still maintain that the chandelier cleaning episode was my favourite, but this book reminded me of so many close contenders.