Comedy Greats - Frankie Howerd (DVD)

...into that style of camp comedy and innuendo. There is a sauciness about it, but also a level of innocence and the combination is one which I find hits the spot and is generally very funny.

I love watching Frankie in Carry On films, but enjoy his other work too. This DVD is a compilation of routines, sketches and interviews he did over decades of his long TV career. In each one, his comic persona shines through the screen, for he rarely ...
...all his body in his comedy performances.

I also especially liked the black and white archive material from the 1960s, when he looked really young. Somehow, he seems to look identical throughout the 1970s and 1980s! Then again, the bags under the eyes were still visible in 1966!

There are a large amount of varied clips on the DVD, which make it fast-moving and includes a lot of material, which is good, but personally, ... more

My Ebaying goes through phases and recently, I have been buying several Frankie Howerd things. I am currently reading a biography on him and this DVD was another recent purchase.

I have admired Frankie for as long as I can remember. I have a very similar sense of humour to my Dad and was brought up on Carry On films and 1970s sitcoms. Frankie fits well into that style of camp comedy and innuendo. There is a sauciness about it, but also a level of innocence and the combination is one which I find hits the spot and is generally very funny.

I love watching Frankie in Carry On films, but enjoy his other work too. This DVD is a compilation of routines, sketches and interviews he did over decades of his long TV career. In each one, his comic persona shines through the screen, for he rarely showed his real self on camera and was a rather shy, private and nervous man.

The public Frankie is one we know and love - his exaggerated facial expressions and vocal inflections, his bumbling and awkwardness, his familiar repeated catch phrases and the physicality of his comedy. The humour of the situations he finds himself in is often sexual, with regular encounters with busty women, but his campness provides an interesting angle on this and the final result is an endearing naïveté, served with a knowing wink.

My main impression of Frankie Howerd is that he is lovable. He comes across as being very vulnerable, as though he would be nervous before a show and could forget his lines - both of which were actually true! He doesn't have the brash confidence of many comedians or actors, he appears to be 'one of us' and we can easily relate to him. He's the gossiping neighbour over the fence, the chatty old bloke at the pub, the stranger you chat to at the bus stop.

One of his first successful series was Variety Bandbox on the radio in the 1940s and we do get an all-too-brief snippet of this on the DVD, but as you would expect, the vast majority of the material here illustrates his TV appearances. His own series were always popular and we see some of these over the years, but a common complaint I have with all the clips is that they are too short. I found that just as I was really getting into them, they would end and we'd get another show or appearance coming along in quick succession.

I also felt the material had little order to it. It might have been better if it had been in chronological order or maybe all chat shows together, then his 'Frankie Howerd' TV series, then Up Pompeii and so on. Although the clips themselves are good ones, it feels as though someone has thrown them up into the air and kept them where they fell.

My least favourite clip is his interview with Russell Harty, but that is due to the interviewer rather than the interviewee! I always found Harty irritating and completely without charm and the clip on here just reminded me why!

In contrast, one of my favourite parts is from Parkinson in 1971. Rarely for Frankie, he delivers a gag while he is sat down and it is interesting to watch him. He was the epitome of a physical performer, someone who uses all his body in his comedy performances.

I also especially liked the black and white archive material from the 1960s, when he looked really young. Somehow, he seems to look identical throughout the 1970s and 1980s! Then again, the bags under the eyes were still visible in 1966!

There are a large amount of varied clips on the DVD, which make it fast-moving and includes a lot of material, which is good, but personally, I would have preferred fewer and longer pieces. The idea of just an apparently random selection of parts of interviews and sketches doesn't really work, in my opinion. I would have liked to see a more rigid format, either with a chronological review of the work or a documentary style DVD with illustrative clips.

This is the latest BBC DVD on Frankie Howerd, as it was released last year and is currently available from Amazon for £8.98. The Comedy Greats collection also includes similar releases on other comedians such as Les Dawson, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Tommy Cooper.

As for this Frankie Howerd one, it is definitely worth having for any fans, but I doubt it is the best compilation out there. So, back to Ebay then…

The Best Of Frankie Howerd is A BBC DVD release under the 'Classic Comedy' section.
Rated PG
65 mins
BBCDVD1336
 

...less