FRANKIE HOWERD. Born Francis Alex Howard in York, England, 6 March 1922. Attended schools in Woolwich, London. Served in Royal Artillery during World War II. Made stage debut, as an amateur, at the age of 13; insurance clerk; performed in camp concerts during World War II; after the war became a favourite in radio's Variety Bandbox; first television show, 1952; made film debut, 1954; subsequently established reputation as star of revue, stage and television comedy, pantomime and film. Order of the British Empire, 1977. Recipient: Variety club of Great Britain Showbusiness Personality of the Year Award (twice). Died in London, 19 April 1992.

TELEVISION SERIES (selection)

1952 The Howerd Crowd
1969 The Frankie Howerd Show
1969 Up Pompeii!
1973 Frankie Howerd in Whoops Baghdad
1976 The Howerd Confessions
1981 Frankie Howerd Strikes Again
1982 Frankie Howerd: Then Churchill Said to Me
1989 All Change
1990 Live Frankie Howerd on Campus

TELEVISION SPECIALS

1973 Whoops Baghdad!
1975, 1991 Further Up Pompeii!

FILMS

The Runaway Bus, 1954; An Alligator Named Daisy, 1955; The Ladykillers, 1955; Jumping for Joy, 1956; A Touch of the Sun, 1956; Further Up the Creek, 1958; Three Seasons, 1961; Watch It Sailor!, 1961; The Fast Lady, 1962; The Cool Mikado, 1962; The Mouse on the Moon, 1963; The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, 1966; Carry On Doctor, 1967; Carry On Up the Jungle, 1969; Up Pompeii, 1971; Up the Chastity Belt, 1971; Up the Front, 1972; The House in Nightmare Park/Crazy House, 1973; Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1978; Trial By Jury, 1983.

RADIO

Variety Bandbox, 1946-52.

STAGE

For the Fun of It, 1946; Ta Ra Rah Boom De Ay, 1948; Out of This World, 1950; Dick Whittington; Pardon My French; Way Out in Picadilly; Wind in the Sassafras Trees; Charley's Aunt; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Mr Venus, 1958; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1962.

PUBLICATIONS

On the Way I Lost It (autobiography), 1976.
Trumps, 1982.

 

 

   

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