OK take a deep breath and be prepared for the bizarre introduction - and then witness the bizarre pleasure that is Frankie Howerd singing the Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four from the odd odd odd Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band “movie”…
One of only two highlights from a seriously utter load of tripe; the other is Steve Martin singing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
Really.
Chris Byrne is the manager of Howerd’s estate and currently lives at the property with Dennis Heymer, Frankie’s partner.
He said more than 20,000 people had visited the house over the years, but it was time to “move on and have a clean break”.
He added: “It’s a one-off house, with the setting and the grounds.
“But the archives will boggle people’s minds. We’ve got paintings, Frank’s X-rays, his school reports and his war papers.
“We’ve even got a hernia belt and the couch where he died.”
If that doesn’t get your cheque book itchy… well it doesn’t mine, either. Still, looks a nice house.
You like pink, don’t you?
The series has been about the dark side of some of the most popular stars in comedy and entertainment, and despite the success with which The Curse of Steptoe and Son replicated the bitter-sweet undercurrent of the actual series I do feel that Rather You Than Me presented us with a telling portrait of stardom, homosexuality and devotion.
Walliams was justifiably lauded as Frankie Howerd, while Rafe Spall was excellent as his partner Dennis Heymer.
I’m sure that Frankie could not have been so terribly unhappy for his whole life - there’s no way he could have managed to work - however in the context of the film it is reassuring to know that Dennis and he remained together until the end, despite one another.
A bleak portrait, superbly played. I hope the BBC treat us to a further series.
That isn’t to denigrate the other films – in particular the Tony Hancock and Joan le Mesurier tale was something I had never heard of before, and I found it fascinating to watch. It has been a great series, but I feel that that in terms of cultural icons, Howerd is the most enduring figure of them all.
So turn on, tune in and titter ye not – although bearing in mind much of the content, this will be an interesting profile of a closet homosexual who became one of Britain’s best loved comic actors, I expect there will be more tears than laughs.
Howerd was of course Lurcio, the lowly servant of a senator, Ludicrus Sextus, whose daughter was the lovely Erotica while his wife was Ammonia, who was rather keen on being entertained by various male guests.
The series was based on the play “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” in which Howerd had appeared in the late 1960s, and ran for 2 original series (1969-1970) and two spinoffs, in 1975 and 1991, shortly before Frankie Howerd passed away.
While successful as an actor and stand up comedian, Howerd will always be remembered mainly for Up Pompeii, a series designed around his stand up routine of addressing the camera/audience directly, full to the rafters will saucy innuendoes and knowing glances to the camera.
As a stand up comic, Howerd’s routine was apparently a ramshackle display of stories that are interrupted by Frankie’s customary asides, mini stories and direct addressing of various (fictional?) audience members.
“Ooh NO Missus!”
“Titter ye Not!”
“No, don’t it’s wicked to mock the afflicted.”
They’re all quintessential Frankie Howerd, and all dispatched over a long career with wonderful timing to a long series of willing and loving audiences.
Howerd is of course famous for these catchphrases, as well as his very distinctive voice which has been mimicked by impressionists and students for years. This Wednesday David Walliams portrays Howerd in final Curse of Comedy, “Rather You Than Me”, and commented after the series was announced that “Matt Lucas and I first bonded as struggling comedians over a shared love of Frankie Howerd impressions.”
Oh behave!
Writing in The Times, they describe how Hancock wasn’t always on the bottle, how Frankie Howerd was always happy (as long as he was centre of attention) and how Steptoe and Son’s Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell kept any strain strictly between themselves.
What is interesting about this is how we have been told certain things over the years about all of these individuals, but when it comes down to it, they are people, like you and I, and for the most normal people with families and loved ones.
Take Hancock, for example. Galton and Simpson relate how he always had difficulty learning lines – being in a car collision lead to him recording an episode utilising autocue, and he never felt the need to learn another script, instead wasting his evenings drinking.
If you’re a fan of The Curse of Comedy, have a read of the article – it certainly paints the lives of these stars in a different light.
For serious fans of British Comedy, there cannot be anything more looked forward to this year than BBC Four’s Curse of Comedy series.
It kicks off this evening with The Curse of Steptoe and Son, in which Phil Davis and Jeremy Isaacs portray the stars Wilfred Bramble and Harry H Corbett, and the stresses and strains that permeated the series are revealed to audiences.
Later episodes feature the tale of Tony Hancock’s affair with best friends wife Joan le Mesurier (starring Ken Stott as Hancock); Hughie Greene’s womanising; and Frankie Howerd’s battle with depression and his sexuality (a remarkable portrayal by David Walliams).
This is going to be n award-winning series; it has quality written all over it and the clips look marvellous.
Don’t miss it.
It’s silly, bawdy, in many cases badly and cheaply made, yet Carry On… is still wonderful, giving us some of the biggest stars in comedy history, launching careers, giving work to old actors who need it and generally being British.
Without Carry On…, we would have no Barbara Windsor. Kenneth Williams would never have become so well known, Sid James might have languished as a serious movie actor gangster type, Frankie Howerd might never have been Lurcio… the list is endless.
So it’s good to know that the old stars – mostly co-stars or stars of the later films these days – get together to celebrate anniversaries still, and Leslie Phillips, producer Peter Rogers, Valerie Leon, Frank Thornton, Dora Bryan, Anita Harris, Bill Maynard, Shirley Eaton and Fenella Fielding are all expected, along with Norman Hudis, the scriptwriter that gave us the first 6 films, which started with Carry On Sergeant, starring William Hartnell and ably assisted by Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques – staples of the later films.
Give me double entendre over Ricky Gervais any day of the week…
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