UK
Comedian.
Born Francis Alex Howard in
York, England, 6 March 1922.
Died in London, 19 April
1992.
Frankie
Howerd was a popular post-war
stand-up comedian, who
survived many changes in the
humour tastes of the British
nation to remain a television
favourite until his death in
1992. From an early age he
decided he wanted to be an
actor, despite bouts of
nervousness and a recurring
stammer, but after suffering
rejection
from the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts he decided instead
to become a stand-up comic.
However, this route seemed
equally closed to him as he
failed numerous auditions.
During World War II he joined
the army but failed to impress
as an entertainer and was turned
down by the military
entertainment organisation ENSA
(actually Entertainments
National Service Association but
better known by the troops as
Every Night Something Awful).
This rejection, however, did not
deter Howerd, who still
performed for his comrades in
arms, learning to control his
stammer and develop a line of
patter.
Following the war Howerd's rise
was dramatic. He toured the provinces in a stage show For
The Fun Of It in 1946 and
although placed at the bottom of the bill
he hit upon the clever ruse of changing his name from Howard to
Howerd. This meant that his name
was more noticeable simply
because people assumed it was a
misprint. And if the name was
spelt incorrectly as the more
normal Howard (an easy mistake)
the comedian could complain and
get some appeasement--perhaps
larger lettering on the next
poster or a longer spot or even
extra money.
In 1947 he presented his comedy
act in the radio series Variety Bandbox and soon became a hit
with the listening public. His
comic persona was becoming
defined by now. Starting out
influenced by the comedians of
his time, especially his great
idol Sid Field (one of Britain's
greatest comic talents from the
1930s to his death in 1950),
Howerd had, by the end of the
1940s, developed a strong style
of his own. His tactic was to
deliver jokes and appear in
sketches almost reluctantly as
if forced there by circumstance.
It was as if he had something
better to do, and if the
audience didn't respond to the
lines in the right way, then he
didn't care. Indeed his off-hand
statement to such indifference
"Oh please yourself"
became one of his great
catchphrases, getting a huge
laugh as the audience identified
with the character.
Success on radio increased his
standing in stageland but many
of the venues were closing down
as the era of music hall was
drawing to an end. Sadly as his
stock rose the circuit itself
was closing down. Many of his
comic contemporaries were
crowding the radio waves and
some (like Charlie Chester and
Terry-Thomas) had even got their
own shows on the increasingly
popular medium of television.
In
1952 Howerd got his first
television series, The Howerd
Crowd, an hour-long
entertainment with scripts by
Eric Sykes. Howerd had a good
face for television, long and
lugubrious, and the small screen
enabled him to use his
exaggerated facial expressions
to good effect.
He appeared a few
more times in that period but he was about to enter one of the quiet phases
of his career.
Howerd made his feature film debut in 1954, a major role in The Runaway Bus and had a small but
memorable part in The
Ladykillers the following year
and it was such film roles and
occasional radio appearances
that kept him occupied
throughout the rest of the
1950s.
His television career throughout
this period was in the doldrums
and with each year bringing in
less work than the year before
he seemed to be on a familiar
path that led to obscurity. Then
in 1962 Howerd's career was suddenly and
dramatically resurrected when he
did a stand-up routine in Peter
Cook's Establishment Club, an
American style comedy cabaret
club specialising in satire.
With a script by Johnny Speight, Howerd
was a big hit. It seemed his
style of innuendo and ad-libbed
asides had a place in the new
world of anti-establishment
comedy. The following year
Howerd consolidated his
revitalised reputation with an
appearance on the BBC's
controversial and groundbreaking
satire series That Was The Week
That Was. In the space of a year
he was re-established as a major
comedy star, and became a
familiar face on television as a
guest star or leading artist in
variety shows. He headlined his
own show again, Frankie Howerd
(1964/66), this time with
scripts from Galton and Simpson,
mixing an introductory stand-up
routine with a long-form sketch
continuing the same theme. Later
the series The Frankie Howerd
Show (1969) was made by ATV for
the ITV network and Howerd also
appeared in one-off
entertainments such as The
Howerd Hour (1968) made by ABC
for the ITV network.
In 1970 Howerd had his biggest
TV success with Up Pompeii! (BBC
1970) a period piece sitcom set
in ancient Pompeii and inspired
by the American stage musical A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to the Forum, in which Howerd
had appeared (as Prologus and
Pseudolus) in its British stage
version. A pilot episode of Up
Pompeii! in 1969 raised enough
interest and the series began
the following year. Howerd
played the slave Lurcio who
commented on and got involved in
the various comings and goings
in his master's household. His
master was Ludricrus Sextus and
most of the main characters in
the plots had punnish names, e.g. Ammonia,
Erotica, Nausius, Prodigus. The
shows (scripted by Talbot
Rothwell, one of the writers of
the bawdy Carry On ... film
series) were peppered with
innuendo and smutty references
and also allowed Howerd free
rein to talk directly to camera
and deliver his typically weary
asides about how awful the show
was. This method of combining a
semi stand-up routine with
plot--coupled with Howerd's
conspiratorial relationship with
the viewing audience which
allowed him to step in and out
of character--gave the series a
unique, almost theatrical feel
which
lingered long in the public
psyche despite the fact that
only thirteen episodes were made (14
with the pilot). Such was its popularity that an Easter
special Further Up Pompeii aired
on the BBC in 1975 and a revival also
called Further Up Pompeii was
made by the commercial London
Weekend Television in 1991. It
also spawned a feature film
version in 1971 (followed by two
others on similar themes, a
medieval romp, Up The Chastity
Belt in 1971 and a World War I
version Up The Front in 1973).
On TV in 1973 the format was
reworked as Frankie Howerd in
Whoops Baghdad (BBC 1973) which
ran for six episodes and
featured Howerd as Ali Oopla
bondservant to the Wazir of
Baghdad.
Howerd actually improved with
age. His face, lined and
wrinkled with doleful bags under
his eyes, became even more
expressive allowing him to
suggest any number of things
with a raise of the eyebrows,
his impossibly deep frown or his
wide-eyed aghast look. The face
now perfectly fitted his camp
delivery, and his confidential
asides and world weary looks
were given added authenticity.
In 1975 Howerd appeared in an
abortive pilot A Touch of the
Cassanovas for Thames TV and
made the series The Howerd
Confessions for the same company
the following year. But British
tastes were changing. The
anarchic comedy new wave that
emerged in the wake of the punk
rock phenomenon began to be taken seriously by
television companies by the
early
1980s and there was a backlash
against Howerd's sexual innuendo
style of humour in favour of
full frontal comedy attacks on
taboo subjects. After his
Yorkshire TV series Frankie
Howerd Strikes Again (1981),
Howerd once again found it
harder to come by work. His 1982
sitcom Then Churchill Said To Me
was made but shelved by the BBC
and in 1985 he was chosen as
front-man in an ill fated and
ill timed attempt to make The
Gong Show (Gambit productions
for C4)--a British version of
the successful U.S. show.
However, comedians some of the
younger audiences began to
rediscover and reassess the old
wave comedians and Howerd once
again found himself back in
favour--appearing to a rapturous
response to college students
similar to the way he had
confounded his critics with his
success at The Establishment
Club. Indeed, evidence of
Howerd's regained popularity can
be found from his appearance in
1987 on LWT's live new wave
comedy showcase Saturday Live;
it meant that the producers considered Howerd
"hip" enough for their
audience.
Although this appearance didn't
have the sort of impact his
previous comeback (on TW3) had
had, it nonetheless heralded
another revival and his again
was a regular face on TV as he
appeared in the young people's
sitcom All Change (Yorkshire TV
1989) and a series of his
concerts filmed for television
the most revealing of which was
Live Frankie Howerd on Campus (LWT
1990). Howerd, back in demand,
was as busy as ever.
Two revealing TV documentaries
contain much of the essence of Howerd's style and craft: 1990s
Ooh Er, Missus--The Frankie
Howerd Story from Arena (the
BBC's art documentary series)
and Thames Television's Heroes
Of Comedy--Frankie Howerd
(1995). -Dick Fiddy
Frankie
Howerd was a popular post-war
stand-up comedian, who 
