Raymond Allen wrote good slapstick by giving Frank Spencer a reason to keep trying, however badly things went. Michael Crawford makes that persistence worth watching, though Allen’s sympathy for his creation does not always supply a fresh joke.
Fi1m perspective
Frank Spencer tries to cope, and the attempt makes everything worse. In Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973), Raymond Allen gives the accidents a consistent cause in Frank’s incompetence, then gives us a reason to care by making him mean well. That is a sound basis for good slapstick, even if the character becomes wearing with prolonged exposure. Michael Crawford’s physical precision makes the trouble worth watching. Allen deserves credit for giving him something to play beyond an inability to get through the day.
Allen’s writing began with plays and sketches in the 1960s, and his work included material for Frankie Howerd and Dave Allen. Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em followed more than a decade of rejected scripts and ran from 1973 to 1978. Other television ideas did not establish a second series: The Dobson Doughnut (1974) remained a pilot. One of Our Howls Is Missing (1979) had a successful stage tour, but the sitcom remained his principal success.
The collaboration matters as much as the premise. Sydney Lotterby’s direction makes Frank’s predicaments easy to follow, allowing anticipation to do some of the work before an accident arrives. Allen provides a recognisable reason for Frank to struggle, while Crawford supplies the demanding physical detail. Allen also worked with malapropisms and catchphrases, though the smaller verbal jokes have a harder time competing with the physical comedy here. We can appreciate the construction even when Crawford is the person holding our attention.
Repetition is the weakness Allen does not quite solve. He varies Frank’s difficulties more reliably than he varies our response, because good intentions and poor co-ordination make the next mishap too easy to predict. We found our attention drifting in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em when the prospect of another accident took the place of a fresh idea. That does not undo the care with which the better physical sequences are built. Give him a thirty-minute episode, rather than the responsibility for an entire evening.
Biography
Raymond Allen was a British television screenwriter and playwright. He created and wrote the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973–1978), contributing 22 episodes starring Michael Crawford as the accident-prone Frank Spencer.
Born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, Allen worked in various jobs, including as a cinema cleaner, while submitting scripts. He also wrote comedy sketches for performers including Dave Allen and Frankie Howerd, and contributed to series such as The Little and Large Show.
Allen died on the Isle of Wight in 2022.
