Review for Oh Please Yourselves... Frankie Howerd at ITV (2 Discs)

"Get your titters out, missus! Get them out for poor Francis."

Another great set from Network who have dug around the archives for a whole bunch of 'Frankie Howerd' material to turn in this fabulous compendium of his work for ITV. It contains no less than six 'specials' (from 1973 through to 1991) as well as two episodes of Russell Harty's chat show featuring Mr. Howerd.
With writers like Galton and Simpson, Barry Cryer, Vince Powell and Johnny Speight penning much of the material it's generally first class though a little variable in terms of production value. Whilst some is solo stand up, the variety show format of the seventies material also includes a wide variety of talent - John Le Mesurier, Sheila Steafel, Kenny Lynch, Bond girl Julie Ege and Kenneth Connor to name a few.


The set opens with an untypical documentary from 1973 which may well have sat more comfortably amongst the extra features. It's a real gem though, following the surprisingly Howerd on a tour playing to the troops in Northern Ireland. This was clearly comfortable territory for Howerd who had started life as an entertainer in the army. It's all on grainy low-lit 16mm film (standard documentary format for the time) and shows Howerd delivering the same 'ad-libs' time and again, sometimes turning in a couple of shows a day using nothing more than a small raised podium and cheap PA mike. He explains that his act is actually penned by others and carefully learned. Despite all evidence to the contrary he claims ad-libbing is kept to a minimum. The troops seemed to enjoy it all - as did I and at a mere 25 minutes it whistles through.



Next up is the very traditional 'Frankie Howerd In Concert' from 1974. It all feels a little bit clunky from the off with Howerd's gags going down with nothing more than a polite titter. The routine's with guests like John Le Mesurier, Kenny Lynch and Julie Ege are occasionally cringe-worthy and you would think that Kenny Lynch would have known better than to be the stooge for some very rank racist humour. I guess we can forgive Howerd who was only speaking the lines of his writers and which must have been acceptable at the time. Ege provides the focus for the sexist humour though this just seems par for the course. Perhaps the weakest set from the bunch, I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of celebration about this one which, had Howerd still been with us, I feel sure he would have rather left in the archives. However, for the sake of completism and balance, it's still a valued addition here.


The early eighties sees a similar format in 'Frankie Howerd reveals all' though the stand up elements are far superior with Howerd in something of a groove. The stand-up segments are broken up with Howerd-free sketches featuring Kenneth Connor, Sheila Steafel and Henry McGee with 'class structure' as the theme. 'Light entertainment' about sums it up.


The 1987 live show 'Superfrank!', shown on Channel 4 is wall to wall Howerd free of any props (other than simple graphics) and, given the time to get the audience on to his wavelength is far more successful. It's chock full of his staple catch-phrases and for Howerd fans is a very satisfying performance. He's at his best playing to an audience and, without the constraints of the studio variety format, he soon gets into the flow.


Perhaps best of the lot (surprisingly) is the early nineties 'Frankie Howerd on Campus', which was shot at Oxford University when he was enjoying an unlikely revival amongst an audience, tired of PC humour and with child-hood recollections of Howerd, embraced him as something of a legend. He's incredibly relaxed and you get the impression is thoroughly enjoying himself. It's a warm celebration of his unique brand of japery and incredibly entertaining.


Finally (bar the excellent extras ) is a 1991 special 'Further Up Pompeii', a revival of his BBC show from the early seventies. It's a bit tedious at nearly an hour, though raises the odd titter and is surprisingly faithful to the original series which was so pouplar it spawned a couple of feature films. However, it's all a bit limp. (Ooh 'er!)


A really nice surprise is the addition of two full episodes of the Russell Harty chat show from 1974 and 1979. They're great period pieces and show Howerd in fine form, making a lie of his previous claim that he needs good writers and doesn't ad-lib. Other guests include husband and wife Jazz couple Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth, as well as Charlton Heston. The first show is short (a half hour slot) but the second is longer. In both cases, Howerd spends much of his time insulting Harty - on reflection not a difficult thing to do!


Throughout, picture quality is understandably variable with the worst image quality on the opening documentary - which is to be expected. All else looks in fine fettle for its vintage.

All in all a thoroughly recommended set. It's a great supplement to the BBC series collection and fans of every age will find plenty to chuckle about. Great stuff!