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

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

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 a 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two 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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

and HTV. The script was written by

Miles Tredinnick Miles Tredinnick, also known as Riff Regan, (born Warrington 18 February 1955) is a rock musician, songwriter and a stage and screenwriter. In the 1970s, he was the lead singer with the British rock band London.Spicer, Al, (2006) ''The Rough Gui ...

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 ...

and

Andrew Nickolds Andrew Nickolds (1949 – 2022) was a British comedy writer. He wrote for Maureen Lipman's Agony, The Lenny Henry Show, Ed Reardon's Week, and Dave Podmore Dave Podmore is a fictional English cricketer. Co-written by the English actor and writer ...

and recorded before a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

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 Sunny Rogers (10 May 1913 – 30 December 2005) was an English entertainer best known for her work with comedian Frankie Howerd. Rogers was born Jessie Mary Rogerson in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Her nickname "Sunny" came from her constant smi ...

. The show was produced by Cecil Korer and

Derek Clark Derek Roland Clark (10 October 1933 – 1 January 2023) was a UK Independence Party politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands from 2004 to 2014. He stood as a UKIP candidate in the 2010 general electi ...

. 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 1987 television specials {{UK-comedy-tv-prog-stub