[TV] Some Mothers Do Ave Em

[LamieRobertson]

First series made 50 years ago …..geez do I feel old

Stumbled across this on YT

 

[Questions]

Hmmm

 

[Is it PotG?]

Ronnie Barker and Norman Wisdom were the BBC's first and second choices for the role of Frank. David Jason was also a contender, but he was rejected because BBC executives at the time believed that he lacked star quality.

 

[Binney on acid]

To think he did his own stunts ! Didn't he reach olympic standards, when he took on 'The loneliness of the long distance runner' ? Incredible talent.

 

[Monkey Man]

Watched an episode the other night on BBC4 I think. I remember feeling a little bit ambivalent about it as a kid, when it was originally screened. Watching it now it seems very dated indeed. Think Michael Crawford is great though, as a performer generally.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Stumbled

 

[jcdenton08]

Wonderful show. Genuinely laugh out loud funny still. Incredible physical humour and stunts not seen since Buster Keaton, and arguably since. Some of the humour is a little dated, naturally, but plenty still stands up. Themes of masculinity, employment struggles and identity as prevalent as ever.

Never understood why people would be sniffy about Some Mothers, lots of it is actually quite clever.

 

[Weststander]

It wasn't my thing as a kid, I preferred Laurel & Hardy, Monty Pythons and Not The Nine O'Clock News.

My wife absolutely loves it even now.

I was pleased to find out in the 80's that Michael Crawford was an incredibly talented theatre star. There's a clip on Parkinson (poignant today), where he was a spell binding superstar.

 

[Taybha]

BettY

 

[jcdenton08]

It wasn't my thing as a kid, I preferred Laurel & Hardy, Monty Pythons and Not The Nine O'Clock News.

My wife absolutely loves it even now.

I was pleased to find out in the 80's that Michael Crawford was an incredibly talented theatre star. There's a clip on Parkinson (poignant today), where he was a spell binding superstar.

He has done numerous musicals in the West End and Broadway, and his theatre career pre-dated his television work. He was the movie musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Hello, Dolly (which features in the movie Wall-E!) long before doing Some Mothers.

He subsequently originated the role of Barnum on stage (and reprising it in the movie) then originated the role of The Phantom in the The Phantom of the Opera in the West End.

Couple of pieces of trivia about him
In Phantom; he had some amazing ideas of stunts which they couldn’t agree to because a) they couldn’t get insurance and b) they suspected nobody would be willing to do them after Crawford left the production. Some mental stuff, like walking down the staircase in “Masquerade” in 10ft high stilts!

Secondly, he and director Hal Prince negotiated a box office percentage rather than a straight wage. An international box office percentage for every time the choreography Crawford created got used nightly. The funny part? Hal Prince had a clause in his contract saying that the producers had to use his show exactly as he left it. Meaning every single show on Broadway, the West End, Germany, Italy, Korea, China or any 166 cities in the world it has played, he got paid a percentage of the box office.

They don’t do deals like that anymore, but Crawford has actually made more money doing nothing than his fees for everything he has ever been in combined.

 

[Brovion]

Wonderful show. Genuinely laugh out loud funny still. Incredible physical humour and stunts not seen since Buster Keaton, and arguably since. Some of the humour is a little dated, naturally, but plenty still stands up. Themes of masculinity, employment struggles and identity as prevalent as ever.

Never understood why people would be sniffy about Some Mothers, lots of it is actually quite clever.

Totally agree; I absolutely loved it as a boy. Yes, like a lot of Seventies shows, Monty Python being a good example, bits of it haven't aged well, and bits of it do now grate, but overall when I have seen repeats I'm in awe of how funny it still is and how good Crawford was. Those stunts!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

To think he did his own stunts ! Didn't he reach olympic standards, when he took on 'The loneliness of the long distance runner' ? Incredible talent.

 

[jcdenton08]

Incredible