Frankie Howerd - The Lost TV Pilots [DVD]

Kaleidoscope have released a double DVD of Frankie Howerd rare Shows and interviews. Called ‘The Lost Television Pilots’ there are two Pilots, as well as two further shows and 3 interviews.Programmes made on foreign shores, namely Australia, Canada and the interviews from the States.Disc 1To start with we have ‘Up the Convicts’ made by the 7 Network in Australia in 1976. As its title suggests it’s another reinvention of his popular BBC show ‘Up Pompeii’, with plenty of double-entendres, with Frankie addressing the camera and talking to the audience. Set in 1820’s Sydney, he plays Jeremiah Shirk, a convict who works as a servant for Sir Montague and Lady Fitzgibbon. And in this particular story (Episode 3) his master is trying to persuade Jeremiah to marry, resulting in many humorous avoidance tactics.The episode is clumsily edited, they obviously had to do many pickups during the recording, there’re not difficult to spot!But this doesn’t detract from its entertainment value.Technical quality: it’s a bit soft, and still has some original Master 2” Quaduplex artefacts, but it mainly suffers from being archived onto a cassette format, probably U-Matic.The series reunites Frankie with Wallas Eaton, who played Senator Ludicrus Sextus in 8 episodes of ‘Up Pompeii’, here he plays 'Sir Montague Fitzgibbon', Jeremiah Shirks owner.Also Playing the part of 'Quinney the Garbo' is Lee Young, Frankie’s ex-partner, portraying, in similar vein, the part of the ‘Genie’ he played in the BBC series ‘Whoops Bagdad’ Episode 3 ‘"Genie of the Bottle"For the next two shows we move across to Canada.‘The Frankie Howerd Show’ was made by CBC ( Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ) 13 episodes were produced between 26th February to 6th June 1976.Originally titled ‘Oooh, Canada’In this series, Frankie, an unemployed British immigrant, has moved to a rooming house in Toronto. While there, he tried every occupation a man of his talents could get while maintaining a life in Canada. Through the course of the series, he had to confront the different Canadian institutions that might put him on the road to success. In the Pilot, Frankie gets a job as a rivet carrier and in the next episode he becomes ‘Francis A Howerd from the London school of decorating and sticking it up’!Included in this compilation is the Pilot Episode as well as Episode 1.Disc 2Now we move onto a different Frankie, ‘the compare’.In the States ,The Gong Show, was a very popular amateur 30 minute talent show with a judging panel of 3 celebrities. The programme was devised and presented by a very charismatic figure called Chuck Barris.ITV decided to have a go at the format. So the next Pilot on the DVD is the UK attempt, presented by our Frankie and made by Southern Television in August 1977.The 3 celebrity panel were Diana Dors, Russell Harty and Madeline Smith, with Bella Emberg feigning disinterest as the act scorer.The show was Directed and Produced by Mike Mansfield. Famous at the time for his flamboyant performances in the studio gallery, directing the children’s Pop show ‘Supersonic’Frankie was off script on this show, he had to adlib to comments made by the panel and guests. For me, this show is worth the price of the DVD alone.The show wasn’t picked up by the network, and the pilot was never transmittedChannel 4 revisted the format agin in 1985, and they used Frankie again for another Pilot.They transmitted this Pilot on 9th December 1985. This channel 4 version is not on the DVD which is a pity.The Final part of his world trip is in 1977 when he appeared on various chats shows in the US. He was promoting the Film ‘Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’; he was playing ‘Mr Mustard’.The extras on the DVD are:‘The Merv Giffin Show’ where it all went a bit flat. The American audience just didn’t get Frankie’s Humour.‘The Mike Douglas Show’ Which was an on the set Junket, a very 'matter of fact' interview.By far the best interview was on ‘Ryan’s Roost’ with Paul Ryan. Frankie was very relaxed and informal, the pressure was off, as it was broadcast on a local cable station. The full 27 minute interview is included on this compilation, the longest ‘one to one’ interview I’ve ever seen with Frank.This interview only exists in Monochrome and appears to be a domestic copy.In conclusion, whether you’re a Frankie super fan or have an interest in British comedy history, this DVD set will make a welcome addition to your library.radiosoundsfamiliar.com

ITS SAID YOU EITHER LOVE FRANKIE HOWERD OR HATE HIM WELL I LOVE HIM SO ANYTHING HE DOES IS OK WITH ME AND IM GLAD I BOUGHT THIS DVD .

Bought as a gift for somebody and they thought it was brilliant and if you are a Frankie H fan, you can't go wrong as this - I'm assured - shows the other side of his talents with a look at shows that have never been repeated - or seen for that matter - since they were made. Or as he himself might have said: " No, dear - force yourself! - yes! - force yourself!"

I really enjoyed this collection of the great Frankie Howard. In particular The Gong Show in which my mother performed.As it was never shown it was a great surprise for my mother who had never seen it on the screen. I met Frankie Howard at that recording and found him very friendly and down to earth.Thank you to the label who has put this footage together. Excellant picture quality too.

Absolutely brilliant a must for all fans

Frankie was a unique gift to all of humanity – although it turned out that not all of humanity were as entertained by him as we Brits were. Yes, he was a huge star in Britain. I particularly remember him on the big screen as the lead in ‘The Runaway Bus’, a small part in ‘The Ladykillers’, ‘The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery’, ‘Carry on Doctor’, ‘Carry on Up The Jungle’ and ‘Up Pompeii’. Plus a mass of telly appearances and his trademark asides, "Oooh, no missus" and "Titter ye not".But he didn’t enjoy the same success in the kinds of overseas markets where you’d have expected him to go down a bundle, like America, Canada and Australia. Here in ‘Frankie Howerd – the Lost TV Pilots’ you glimpse him trying to break into those telly markets. None of them worked. The only one that made any kind of a dent in its local market was ‘Up The Convicts’ produced by the 7 Network in Australia. You can kind of see why the Aussies might take offence here – whilst “Up The…” trades cleverly on the success of ‘Up Pompeii’, the use of the “Convicts” handle might have been too on the nose for a new society trying to shake off the myth that all Australians are descended from convicts! It was pulled after 4 episodes. You get Episode 3 here in this collection.For different reasons, it was the same story in Canada and America. It may well have been his overtly homosexual shtick – much loved by British audiences, but perhaps just too much for Canadians and Americans – that did for him in North America. You can judge for yourself how he went down in the US – this collection includes his interviews on the daytime talk show, ‘The Mike Douglas Show’ and the nighttime talk show, ‘The Merv Griffin Show’.So whether it was just plain bad luck, or the cosier notion that Frankie Howerd was our very own Frankie Howerd, and no-one elses, Frankie Howerd remained a uniquely British entertainer. Whatever, it’s 4 stars for some fascinating background on one of Britain’s all-time great comedians.

Brilliant thank you

Aussie pilot shows and revealing interviews.Totally loved tham