Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Richard Vine

Baize of glory: BBC revives snooker's 1980s heyday with The Rack Pack

BBC’s The Rack Pack featuring Steve Davis (Will Merrick), Alex Higgins (Luke Treadaway), Barry Hearn (Kevin Bishop), Lynn Higgins (Nichola Burley), Jimmy White (James Bailey).
BBC’s The Rack Pack featuring Steve Davis (Will Merrick), Alex Higgins (Luke Treadaway), Barry Hearn (Kevin Bishop), Lynn Higgins (Nichola Burley), Jimmy White (James Bailey). Photograph: BBC/Zeppotron/Kieron McCarron/Amanda Searle

‘I’m exactly what the game needs – I’m an entertainer …’

A new film revives the 1980s rivalry between Alex “Hurricane” Higgins (Luke Treadaway) and Steve “The Nugget” Davis (Will Merrick), two very different personalities who helped popularise the sport on TV. In 1985, the world snooker final was watched by 18.5 million people, still a record for a post-midnight audience in the UK.

Debuting on BBC iPlayer, The Rack Pack is directed by Brian Welsh (Glasgow Girls, Black Mirror), written by Shaun Pye, Mark Chappell and Alan Connor, the team behind A Young Doctor’s Notebook. Nichola Burley plays Alex’s wife Lynn Higgins, with James Bailey as Jimmy White and Kevin Bishop as Davis’s manager Barry Hearn.

The Rack Pack trailer.

The Rack Pack will be available on BBC iPlayer from 17 January, 9pm

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.