Frankie Howerd

Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd, OBE (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992) was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.

Early career

Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934) and Edith Florence Howard (née Morrison, 1888–1962), at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). He was educated at Shooters Hill Grammar School in Woolwich, London.

His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for RADA. He began to entertain during World War II service in the British Army. It was at this time that he adapted his surname to Howerd "to be different". Despite suffering from stage fright, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show called For the Fun of It.

His act was soon heard on radio, when he made his debut, in early December 1946, on the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. His profile rose in the immediate postwar period (aided with material written by Eric Sykes, Galton and Simpson and Johnny Speight). In 1954, he made his screen debut opposite Petula Clark in The Runaway Bus, which had been written for his specific comic talent. The film was so low-budget that it could not afford scenery; instead a fog-generator was used so that little was visible behind the action. The film, however, was an immediate hit, even though Howerd never established a major film presence thereafter.

Up Pompeii!

Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991.

Background

Up Pompeii! began as a Comedy Playhouse. Michael Mills and Tom Sloan, from BBC Comedy and Light Entertainment, were visiting the ruins of Pompeii. Since Mills had recently seen Frankie Howerd in the play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum he casually remarked to Sloan that he half expected Frankie Howerd to appear coming round some corner. Sloan had replied 'Why not?', and the idea for the comedy took root. Talbot Rothwell was invited to write a script and the designer Sally Hulke visited Pompeii with a sketch book and camera to ensure some realism and authenticity in the production's look.

A slight variation of this history of the show's development is related by Bill Cotton who, in an interview with author Graham McCann on 6 June 2000, said that Mills, the BBC's then Head of Comedy, prompted by the plays of Plautus, came up with the idea for the show for Frankie Howerd. Mills had seen the London stage production of the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, set in ancient Rome, and had thought that there might be more mileage to be drawn from Howerd's role as the slave Pseudolus. There were concerns in the Corporation's copyright department that the parallels between the musical and the comedy series might lead to litigation over possible plagiarism, but Rothwell told the BBC that he had seen neither the stage musical nor its film adaptation.

The House in Nightmare Park

The House in Nightmare Park (known as "Crazy House" in the U.S.) is a 1973 British comedy horror film directed by Peter Sykes and starring Frankie Howerd, Ray Milland and Hugh Burden. It was one of a number of British comedy films which parodied the successful British horror genre, closely associated with the Hammer Horror films. Its plot follows that of a traditional "Old Dark House" story.

Plot

Struggling actor Foster Twelvetrees (Frankie Howerd) is invited to a large country home by Stewart Henderson (Ray Milland) to perform a dramatic reading for his family. Outwardly, Stewart is complimentary and enthusiastic, but his more sinister intentions were made clear when earlier he secretly sliced a poster of Twelvetrees. Whilst they chat, Stewart's sister Jessica (Rosalie Crutchley) and their Indian servant Patel (John Bennett) begin searching through Twelvetrees' luggage. Twelvetrees nevertheless responds with an unintentional wit and bumbling characteristic throughout the rest of the film.

Madeline Smith

Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. Having been a model in the late 1960s she appeared in many television series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life

She was born in Hartfield, Sussex. Her father owned an antiques shop near Kew Gardens and in her late teens she had a temporary job at Biba, the famous boutique located on Kensington High Street, London. It was at the instigation of Barbara Hulanicki, founder of Biba, that she became a model. In the late 1960s and early '70s, she was regularly featured in the work of Disc cartoonist J Edward Oliver, who on one occasion devoted an entire strip to her entitled 'The Life and Habits of the Madeline Smith'.

Career

She first worked for Hammer Film Productions in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), billed as 'Maddy Smith' and playing an East End prostitute. Among her other film appearances, she played opposite Ava Gardner in Tam-Lin, Peter Cushing in The Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Diana Dors in The Amazing Mr Blunden, Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii and Up the Front, and Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood. In 1973 she played the Bond girl Miss Caruso in the post-titles sequence of Live and Let Die, the first James Bond film starring Roger Moore. She was recommended for the role by Moore himself, having previously appeared with him in an episode of The Persuaders! on TV.

Lance Percival

John Lancelot Blades Percival, known as Lance Percival (26 July 1933 – 6 January 2015), was an English actor, comedian and singer, best known for his appearances in satirical comedy shows of the early 1960s and his ability to improvise comic calypsos about current news stories. He later became successful as an after-dinner speaker.

Biography

He was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, and was educated at Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset, where he learnt to play the guitar. He then did national service with the Seaforth Highlanders as a lieutenant and was posted to Egypt. In 1955 he emigrated to Canada where he worked as an advertising copywriter, writing jingles for radio. He also formed a calypso group as "Lord Lance" which toured the US and Canada.

Percival first became well known in the early 1960s for performing topical calypsos on television shows such as That Was The Week That Was, after having been discovered by Ned Sherrin, performing at the Blue Angel Club in Mayfair. A tall thin man with a distinctive crooked nose and prominent ears, he also appeared in several British comedy films including the Carry On film Carry On Cruising (1962). Percival had a cameo role in The V.I.P.s (1963) and another in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964). He also appeared in his own BBC TV comedy series Lance at Large (also 1964), with writers Peter Tinniswood and David Nobbs.