''Superfrank!'' is a 1987 one-hour television special starring English

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience dir ...

Frankie Howerd Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Deat ...

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. The special show marked his return to television performance after an absence of five years. The show was made by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and HTV. The script was written by Miles Tredinnick,

Vince Powell Vincent Joseph Powell (6 August 1928 – 13 July 2009) was a British television scriptwriter. He collaborated with a writing partner, Harry Driver, until 1973. Early life Powell was born as Vincent Joseph Smith to Roman Catholic parents in Mi ...

and Andrew Nickolds and recorded before a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmi ...

Playhouse Theatre
/ref> close to where Howerd had his country home in the

Mendips The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills o ...

. At one stage he is joined by some donkeys who do their best to upstage him. Howerd ends the show with some songs accompanied on the piano by Sunny Rogers. The show was produced by Cecil Korer and Derek Clark. It was transmitted in January 1987. The show's working title was 'Let's Be Frank!'

DVD release

''Superfrank!'' is available on DVD as part of the two-disc Network DVD release ''Oh, Please Yourselves - Frankie Howerd at ITV''.

References

External links

Frankie on the tellyBritish Film Institute (BFI)
Channel 4 comedy Channel 4 original programming 1987 television specials {{Comedy-tv-prog-stub