OOOH BETTY!
Joe eyeing up Frank in TV classic revival
SOME Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em could return to TV with Joe Pasquale as Frank Spencer.
The squeaky-voiced joker is touring in the stage show of the hit sitcom.
But he has now bought the rights to the TV series which starred Michael Crawford with his catchphrase: “Oooh Betty!”
Joe said: “I am in talks to get the show back on TV and working closely with the original writer Raymond Allen.
“For two years I’ve been working closely with Ray to get this script where it is.”
The show was a smash hit in the Seventies with Crawford, now 76, and Michele Dotrice, 69, as Betty.
Crawford did his own stunts as the accident-prone Frank in 23 episodes between 1973 and 1978. Pasquale said that the idea of taking over from Crawford happened by chance. He added: “I was doing Spamalot in the West End, playing King Arthur, and I was boiling hot and sweating. “My fan wasn’t working so I rewired it and plugged it in and it blew up. “The directors on the show, Guy and Chris Luscombe, both said at the same time, ‘You are like a real-life Frank Spencer. Have you ever thought about playing Frank?’ “They then contacted Raymond and asked him if we could get the rights and he said, ‘It all depends on who you have got to play Frank.’ “When they told him they were considering me he replied, ‘Well, he is the only person who can’.”