Mum’s the word
MARION MCMULLEN recalls the start of classic comedy Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em 50 years ago
THE misadventures of the well-meaning yet ineffectual and accident-prone Frank Spencer kept viewers laughing in the 1970s.
Michael Crawford did all his own stunts as bumbling Frank while Michele Dotrice played his ever-patient wife Betty, with her trademark lament of: “Oh, Frank.”
The BBC comedy began 50 years ago, on February 15, 1973, and quickly became a TV favourite.
Writer Ray Allen originally had difficulty in getting the show commissioned. It proved to be his only hit sitcom and he was told the news by the BBC in a message that was delivered while he was working as a cleaner at a local cinema.
“I said I had a letter from the BBC and they want me to go to Television Centre in London and work for them,” he recalls, “and one of my colleagues said, ‘I can’t understand that, you’d think they could get their own cleaners’.”
The stunts in the series gained legendary status. Michele once recalled filming was “a bit hairy” the time she had to crawl over the top of a car teetering on a cliff edge.
“We could see ships in the distance,” she said. “I trusted Michael and I knew he wouldn’t do anything unsafe.”
Despite the show’s popularity, she remembered her mother not being as amused after watching it go out. Michele recalled: “My mother came over and slapped me - ‘You stupid girl, how dare you do something so silly!’ she said.”
Stunt co-ordinator Stuart Fell said the stunts were “ambitious for the BBC” at the time. He once dressed in a summer frock ready to double for actress Michele, but in the end she did all the shots herself.
The British sitcom ended in 1978 but Michael and Michele were back as Frank and Betty 38 years later in 2016 for a one-off special for Sports Relief.
The sketch saw hapless Frank in a number of calamitous escapades culminating in a chance meeting with cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins.
Sir Bradley said: “It’s an absolute honour to be asked to be involved alongside such an icon of British television... and all for a great cause!”