Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I grew up watching snooker just as it boomed on TV and the Higgins / Davis rivalry came to prominence, so I thoroughly enjoyed this warts and all dramatisation of the relationship between the mercurial Irishman and the stolid Essex boy in the early 80's. I like my sporting and musical heroes to be mavericks so no prizes for guessing where my sympathies lay and from the production here, I suspect that was true for the director too. Unquestionably an often far from pleasant man, an alcoholic with a foul tongue and short temper, Higgins, like that other genius Belfast boy, George Best, always seemed to have one finger poised over the self-destruct button, treating his life like one big game of snakes and ladders, where the falls outnumbered the rises not only in number but in scale.Sporting rivalry always makes for good copy, as witness down the years Borg and McEnroe, Hunt and Lauda, Ali and Frazier to name but three, where one is usually undramatic and coolly professional, the other as being flamboyant and rebellious. Higgins at his best could beat anyone on the green baize, but with his showmanship, temper outbursts and alcoholic intake all distracting him at times, he could never match the discipline, professionalism and steadiness of a Davis. If Higgins was the self-proclaimed People's Champion, then Davis was the Grannie's Favourite.This BBC movie accurately captures the 70's and 80's era as snooker came out of the smoky back rooms and, its image greatly cleaned up, onto TV screens as the favourite armchair sport of the nation in the mid 80's. With a largely contemporary rock music soundtrack in the background, although many songs are haphazardly placed in the wrong year, excellent recreations of the big matches themselves and above all a terrific performance by Luke Treadaway as the compelling Higgins, I was certainly transported back to my youth eagerly following the Hurricane's wayward progress in both his sport and his troubled life.With sharp dialogue, including many good jokes and fine acting support by Will Merrick as the "interesting" Davis and especially Kevin Bishop as the latter's Kingmaker manager Barry Hearn, this was as riveting as watching Higgins compiling a break. I didn't believe everything I saw, especially the scenes where Higgins begs Hearns to be his manager or Davis talking Higgins out of his depression at losing a match when well into his decline, but I recognised enough other scenes and can allow some dramatic licence to heighten the drama.In the final summing up I'd prefer to watch Higgins play than Davis, but after the match I'm sure I'd prefer to be in the latter's company. I'm sure they played down some of the Irishman's excesses, but being deceased, he probably deserved the respect this fine film affords him. And just as a postscript, I personally think they should have added his name to Best's for the naming of Belfast's airport, his star burned as brightly and briefly as his footballing near-contemporary.

I thought the movie was very good, the first half brought some very good music tracks back to life. I seem to remember that in 1979 the snooker was on the BBC for hour after hour, and if memory recalls Higgins lost to Taylor during that championship. However 1979 was a dark year for most of the people in the U.K. when something happened that made the £ or $ sign more important than people. It took Higgins another ten years until 1982 to win the title again, which is where the film portrays him to be struggling as the best, but not the most commercialized snooker player. The films shows one of the main characters out to be a child of this greed for cash. Nearly forty years later I still have the same opinion as do nearly all my mates of that said person. Anyway good sounds, good story, (not sure if all snooker player portrayed sold their souls for cash) In short it appears that the title would of been more appropriate to be named as, (Barry Hearne is a CTNU)

From Treadaway's accent and mannerisms, to the clever interposition of excerpts of TV commentary from those early 1980s matches.. this film is (like the Steve Davis era it portrays) universally professional.The characters are spot on, the emotional story played with respect, but without deference and above all (in capturing the effectiveness of this piece) the snooker sequences are brilliant! If you go onto Youtube and watch Higgins' 1982 Semi-Final "break of the tournament", then straight after you watch Treadaway jerking and swaying to the same beat you will see what I mean. How on this planet they recreated that blue to the top corner??? - The best thing I've seen for at least a year!

Just watched the Rack Pack on iPlayer and thought it was great, very amusing and moving in turns. The performances were very good, but I can't help feeling they made Steve Davis seem a little bit too nerdy in the early days, asking the manager of the first snooker club about the pockets and the slate for instance. Whilst I'm not denying Alex Higgins' talent, I did think the programme focused more on him, and made him the real main character. Personally, I was never that fond of him as a 'character' and have always admired Steve Davis for the way he handled himself, even moreso now as a respected presenter and commentator of snooker. Also, I'm sure all the real life people gave their approval to the portrayals on film, but I don't think Jimmy White has done himself any favours by agreeing to how he was portrayed in this drama. Finally, these 'real life' docu-dramas always leave me wondering how accurate they are, was Higgins really so rude to Cliff Thorburn and his wife, so that Thorburn laid into him physically. But overall, very enjoyable and watchable, and very well acted.