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Episode 3: Frankie Howerd

Summary

Profile of Frankie Howerd, using archive interviews he gave to various TV chat show hosts during the 1970s and 1980s. Howerd is best remembered for the monologues he performed on stage and in sitcoms such as Up Pompeii. Narrated by Tamsin Greig

Review

You’ll remember the “Ooh no, missus” and “Titter ye not”, but may have forgotten “Hearken!” This week’s archive-trawl turns the spotlight on doyen of the double entendre Frankie Howerd.

With his brown suits and bird’s-nest-wig, Francis Alick Howerd could manipulate an audience like few other stand-ups. An enthralling career in clips reveals how scant material gave way to proper jokes, stammering to confidence. A gleeful chat-show saboteur, Howerd looked deeply hurt when Michael Parkinson outed the depressive beneath the quips, but made Russell Harty go red in a more typical digression. And one interview exposes how canny Howerd’s humour was: by not aligning himself, he was able to take the mickey out of absolutely everyone.

Details

Languages
Formats
Colour

Credits

Crew

rolename
NarratorTamsin Greig
Executive producerJohn Quinn

All episodes

  • Summary

    Profile of Frankie Howerd, using archive interviews he gave to various TV chat show hosts during the 1970s and 1980s. Howerd is best remembered for the monologues he performed on stage and in sitcoms such as Up Pompeii. Narrated by Tamsin Greig

    Review

    You’ll remember the “Ooh no, missus” and “Titter ye not”, but may have forgotten “Hearken!” This week’s archive-trawl turns the spotlight on doyen of the double entendre Frankie Howerd.

    With his brown suits and bird’s-nest-wig, Francis Alick Howerd could manipulate an audience like few other stand-ups. An enthralling career in clips reveals how scant material gave way to proper jokes, stammering to confidence. A gleeful chat-show saboteur, Howerd looked deeply hurt when Michael Parkinson outed the depressive beneath the quips, but made Russell Harty go red in a more typical digression. And one interview exposes how canny Howerd’s humour was: by not aligning himself, he was able to take the mickey out of absolutely everyone.

    Details

    Languages
    Formats
    Colour

    Credits

    Crew

    rolename
    NarratorTamsin Greig
    Executive producerJohn Quinn
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