Friday

Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All

9pm, BBC Four

As was often the case, when Frank Sinatra sang All Or Nothing At All, he sang it like he meant it. Similarly, when director Alex Gibney took the song as title for his documentary portrait of Sinatra, he didn’t do it lightly. Running four hours, the profile doesn’t, finally, reveal the all of Sinatra, but it sure feels like you’re getting more than a hefty chunk, without ever feeling like you’re getting too much. It’s a hell of piece of work, about a man who was a hell of a piece of work.

Hard born in Hoboken; bobby-soxer sensation; meteoric rise; suicidal affair with Ava Gardner; cataclysmic crash-and-burn as the 1950s dawned; the comeback; the Mob shadows; ruling the world with the Rat Pack; JFK; Nixon; the long, lingering goodbye that started with his famous “retirement” concert in 1971... Sinatra’s story is well known, and the territory is only due to get more trampled yet as we approach the 100th anniversary of his birth in December.

What makes this programme curiously fresh, however, is the editorial sleight of hand Gibney performs, assembling things and clearing the ground so it feels as though Sinatra himself is telling us his tale, or at least sitting in to provide wary commentary as it unfolds. From a multitude of sources – radio and TV interviews, public and private appearances, family tapes and other rare recordings made decades apart – Gibney stitches a patchwork narration by Frank himself. So, even if you’ve heard, for example, the Mafia allegations a million times, it’s interesting to hear him deal with them personally. Even if you don’t always fully believe him. (While too nuanced to be labelled hagiography, this is very much an authorised account, made with the co-operation of the Sinatra estate.)

To complement Sinatra’s phantom thoughts, Gibney gathers a chorus of contributors, some archive, some newly interviewed, including his kids, first wife Nancy, and passing icons like Harry Belafonte and Lauren Bacall. Cleverly, though, rather than cutting in talking heads, he keeps them mostly unseen, voices only, ensuring our attention remains fully on Frank and the fantastic torrent of archive footage. The effect is immersive.

For a structure, Gibney turns to Sinatra again. When he set about planning that so-called retirement show in 1971, he thought long and hard about what to sing, finally selecting 11 songs he felt were key. Gibney uses that concert and those songs as his framework, in a way that lends a surprisingly dramatic flow.

It’s worth saying, however, that this BBC version lets the documentary down a little. Originally made for HBO, Gibney designed it as two two-hour episodes: the first, laying out Sinatra’s rise, meltdown and hard-fought return; the second, dealing with his 1960s, with particular focus on his politics, how the swinging, high-hopes Democrat suddenly swung Republican. But this edition has instead been chopped into four hour-long segments, leaving some of that drama and flow hanging disjointed. Why is hard to figure. This week, it seems largely to make room for Friday Night At The Proms (10.15pm, BBC Four), a “special” in which Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane sings Sinatra with the John Wilson Orchestra. There are two types of Sinatra fan, buddy. There’s the kind who will reckon this kind of thing sounds fun. And there’s the kind who, rather than listen to it, would have their heads encased in cement. Or, ideally, somebody else’s head. You’ll know which kind you are.