I saw a docu-drama on Graham Young several years ago and I remember it being rather cliched in style with characters complaining of feeling unwell followed by a jump cut to their funeral with Young standing at the graveside with a smug expression . Despite its flaws the docu-drama did at least stick to the true life story of Young unlike THE YOUNG POISONER`S HANDBOOK which starts with a disclaimer that many events are fictionalised . It`s no bad thing twisting the truth to this story because I`d have felt extremely guilty laughing out loud as people were poisoned
The one obvious problem is Hugh O`Conor as Graham Young . He`s very good in the role but if the Young family are working class then why does young Graham speak with an upper class public schoolboy accent ? Couldn`t the director have told him to tone it down a bit ? Worse still - And there`s no way anyone would have known this in 1995 when the film was made - Mr O`Conor looks exactly like Gareth Gates . If you`ve no idea who GG is let me explain that he was runner up in Britain`s POP IDOL contest last year . He lost out to Will Young ( No relation I take it ) in the final but Gareth was the real star who became an even bigger selling artist than Will , all the teenage girls loved him due to his choir boy looks and perfect manners and I can`t hammer home enough the striking physical similarities between Mr Gates and Mr O`Conor . I spent the entire duration of THE YOUNG POISONER`S HANDBOOK convinced that the star of POP IDOL was killing people which made me laugh even louder
Yeah but I shouldn`t have laughed . Despite much artistic license this is still a true story of how innocent people were murdered by a psycopath and I hope no one else decides to make more black comedies featuring mass murderers . I hate myself for enjoying this movie
The one obvious problem is Hugh O`Conor as Graham Young . He`s very good in the role but if the Young family are working class then why does young Graham speak with an upper class public schoolboy accent ? Couldn`t the director have told him to tone it down a bit ? Worse still - And there`s no way anyone would have known this in 1995 when the film was made - Mr O`Conor looks exactly like Gareth Gates . If you`ve no idea who GG is let me explain that he was runner up in Britain`s POP IDOL contest last year . He lost out to Will Young ( No relation I take it ) in the final but Gareth was the real star who became an even bigger selling artist than Will , all the teenage girls loved him due to his choir boy looks and perfect manners and I can`t hammer home enough the striking physical similarities between Mr Gates and Mr O`Conor . I spent the entire duration of THE YOUNG POISONER`S HANDBOOK convinced that the star of POP IDOL was killing people which made me laugh even louder
Yeah but I shouldn`t have laughed . Despite much artistic license this is still a true story of how innocent people were murdered by a psycopath and I hope no one else decides to make more black comedies featuring mass murderers . I hate myself for enjoying this movie