Distributor:
Roadshow Entertainment Certificate: PG
Release Date: 5 August 2004
Region 4 | Pal | 65 minutes Available to Buy. Extras: No
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Frankie
Howerd, Michael Parkinson, Terry Wogan, Bob Monkhouse, Patricia Haines,
Jennifer Lonsdale
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
A
collection of choice Frankie
Howerd material from right
across his career, from his
radio days on Variety Bandbox
and taking in classic
appearances on chat shows such
as Parkinson and Wogan and
covering his sitcom Up Pompeii
and even a clip from Noel
Edmond’s Late Late Breakfast
Show.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
This
release from Roadshow really lives up to its title, offering us a great
deal of very very funny material. Frankie Howerd was a major comedic
name in Britain right from his
breakthrough on the radio show Variety Bandbox (there is a soundbite of
this included here) until his death in 1992.Howerd had a very distinctive style, meanderin and bumbling his
way through elongated routines with his catchphrases well to the fore
(titter ye not, ooh no missus,please
yourselves).
This
is great stuff, there are some truly seldom seen vintage clips on view
here from his army camp visit in 1966’s East of Howerd to the all time
classic Up Pompeii (which gave full rein to Howerd’s cheeky style with
direct to camera monologues, fruity double intenders and corny gags
galore, this series definitely needs a full release on DVD) as well as
the one off 1975 revisit Further Up Pompeii. There are also a whole heap
of clips of Howerd’s appearances on chat shows such as Parkinson,
Wogan and even Russell Harty (you never get to see the real Howerd on
any of these though, he is in full performance mode throughout).
Howerd’s
material was always of a pretty high standard thanks to the quality of
the writers he had assisting him, included here are sketches written by
the likes of David Nobbs, Talbot Rothwell and Ray Galton and Alan
Simpson.
A
definite must see and well worth adding to your comedy collection.
