Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was a hugely popular British comedy series, broadcast by the BBC in the 1970s. It was considered unlikely to succeed but the series triumphed due to the outstanding performance of Michael Crawford as the hapless Frank Spencer and became one of the most popular comedy series of the decade, attracting a huge family audience.

Frank Spencer was the ultimate "loser", unemployed and unemployable, unable to cope with even the simplest day-to-day tasks. Every well-meaning attempt he made ended in disaster. What saved him, and kept the story comic, was his innocence, his dogged persistence, and his outrage at the injustices he felt he suffered.

Writer of the series Raymond Allen maintained he based the character on himself and quoted as his qualifications his outdated dress sense, complete lack of self-confidence and overwhelming inability to do anything right. As proof of the character's origins, Allen recalled how he had bought himself a full-length raincoat to wear to the first rehearsals of the series in London and was dismayed to see Michael Crawford acquire one virtually the same as the perfect costume to play the role. The mac, together with the beret and the ill-fitting tanktop jumper, quickly became Frank's visual trademarks.

It was Michael Crawford who turned Frank Spencer into a legend of British television comedy, employing the whole battery of his considerable comic skills. Disaster prone but defiant, the little man at odds with society.

Each episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was essentially a one-joke escapade. What kept the series engaging, however, was the pathos that Crawford engendered in the character, making him human and endearing. In this Crawford was ably abetted by Michelle Dotrice, who played Frank Spencer's long-suffering but loyal girlfriend, and later wife, Betty.

Crawford insisted on performing many of the hair-raising and life-threatening stunts himself, teetering in a car over lofty cliffs, dangling underneath a helicopter, and risking destruction under the wheels of a moving articulated lorry. The skill that he displayed in pulling off these stunts impressed even those who baulked at the show's BBC humour and  sentimental approach.