But there is this subset of sitcoms that is built only around their characters, the whole basis of which is: let’s finish this character and let them do their own thing. Count Arthur Strong is one. Miranda is different. So is Some Mothers Do ‘Ave’Em, a favorite of the’ 70s (25 million viewers!) Whose premise is simple: the unfortunate man has accidents. One such show stands or falls into its casting and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave’Em has been cast for centuries. I have watched old episodes before seeing the new theatrical adaptation. Aside from the nostalgic rush of a rerun of a show that evokes my first family TV memories, the pleasure was Michael Crawford’s beautiful turn as Frank Spencer’s walking disaster – with mutual respect for his wife D on the screen and Michel Watch the first episode and the absence of a case is, at first, worrying. Perhaps in 1973, when gender roles were less flexible, it was enough of a starting point to present a weak and neurotic young spouse, unable to hold a job or be masculine in any way. For modern eyes, this turns into animation: we no longer see the Fleabag. And in the hands of anyone else, Frank Spencer could have been too much: too scary, too irritating, too tragic. There is a very narrow sweet spot to aim for here, where his innocence and misfortune are funny and not frustrating, where his emotional nature remains the right side of the turmoil. Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice in the 1978 episode of Moving House. Photo: Radio Times / Getty Images Crawford does it, and he does it without obviously trying to make us laugh. As his past career suggests (starring opposite Barbra Streisand in the Oscar-winning Hello Dolly, oddly enough) and since then, he has been a true stage and screen technician. You could enjoy Frank Spencer, the prime Mr. Bean who is, in a low voice: Crawford’s expressions, his reactions, his every gesture a subtle choreographed silly display of malaise. The key, perhaps, is that Crawford is not playing Frank’s mistake. he plays his despair of getting things right. And with such a light touch! “It’s a weird mix,” Crawford said of the character, “because he’s funny at what he says and how he behaves, but it boils inside.” She is an incredibly sensitive soul. “To play the role, you have to know how you feel when people say things that hurt.” And then there are the stunts – what most people remember from Some Mothers Do ‘Ave’Em. Skating under trucks, falling to the floor of a hotel room and hanging from a Morris Minor as he climbs a cliff. As is well known, Crawford interpreted it all himself – and in honor of Joe Pasquale, he does it in stage production, flying under a railing, his feet safely, sending the axes to fly. Sarah Earnshaw as Betty and Joe Pasquale as Frank Spencer in the stage production of the tour. Photo: Scott Rylander However, casting a sexagenarian as Frank Spencer queers on the court. Childhood innocence and impotence is one thing for a 30-year-old and quite another for a man twice his age. The theatrical show takes as a (weak) plot Betty’s announcement of her first pregnancy and you can not help but notice that the prospective dad is not much younger than retirement age. So is it still Frank Spencer? Not really? Definitely not if you got the original in advance. You could argue, I suppose, that this is Pasquale’s interpretation of the character (more talkative, less tortured and vulnerable), in the same way that actors interpret Hamlet. But Spencer is not Hamlet and (with due regard for his fine screenplays) author Raymond Allen is not Shakespeare. Frank in the popular fantasy is simply the sum of the beautifully designed traits that Crawford brought to a familiar type of character. Absent them, and you just get the press. Pasquale gives this lovable klutz persona a decent twist on stage. Susie Blake is in fun form as his mother-in-law – of course, there is a mother-in-law – and there is an impressive setting at the end. But the humor presented (double and pastoral rest) is very old-fashioned: the stage feels more squeaky and out of date than the originals of the 1970s. As with The Good Life, I see no reason for this stage to exist. show in addition to the nostalgia and low confidence of theaters these days that they can fill their room with anything original. But they reconnect us with something special that happened in the past – in this case, an indelible Crawford comic turn, with which I warmly suggest that you (re) meet. Some Mothers Do ‘Ave’Em will be touring the UK until 13 August.
