Another interview transcript from Russell Harty Plus, 1974. An absolute riot of an interview here with Frankie Howerd.
It’s so vivid you can practically hear it as you read…
(screams of laughter)
Oh, isn’t the internet marvellous? It’s only just occurred to me that someone’s probably put all these Russell Harty interviews on Youtube, and of course they have. Here’s an edited version of the interview – I see the transcript took out a whole bit about Howerd’s house in Malta and it’s all a bit less screamy that I imagined.
Here you go, witness Russell’s strangely carpeted studio:
2 replies on “Russell Harty Plus Frankie Howerd, 1974”
To me, Frankie Howerd was up there with the funniest comedians England ever produced. Most people remember him from Up Pompei which had occasional flashes of brilliance, but it wasn’t really his best vehicle. His control of a live audience was unrivalled. His timing was perfect. He didn’t even have to say anything funny. All he had to say was something like “Now don’t laugh but … no, please, please, don’t … oh no please you mustn’t …” and the whole audience would be in rib-cracking hysterics. At Blackpool on the comedy carpet you can read his routine about taking two elephants on the tube. It stuck in my head for days. If you don’t know it, it’s here just under the “Please Yourselves” heading: http://comedycarpet.co.uk/content/comedians/extra/big/frankiehowerd1.png
That’s wonderful, thank you, I hadn’t read the elephants routine. It’s fantastic reading his monologues, you hear them exactly in his voice.