Established in 1998, Nostalgia Central is your one stop reference guide through five decades of music, movies, television, pop culture and social history

1 9 7 3 - 1 9 7 8 (UK)
19 x 30 minute episodes
3 x 50 minute Christmas specials

THE CAST

Frank Spencer
Michael Crawford
Betty Spencer
Michelle Dotrice

Some mothers do 'ave 'em

The slapstick adventures of childlike, accident-prone Frank Spencer, resplendent in mac, tank top and beret.

Frank was the ultimate loser - unemployable, unable to cope with even the simplest technology, and the victim of his surroundings.

His nervous, effete movements and tremulous voice gave Frank Spencer a childlike quality that might have become tedious if it wasn't for the fact that these affectations were combined with some of the most amazing and hilarious physical comedy ever seen on TV.

Every well-meaning attempt he made to come to terms with the world ended in disaster, be it learning to drive, getting a job, or realising some long-cherished dream.

What saved him was his innocence, his dogged persistence, and his outrage at the injustices he felt he had suffered . . . and his patient, understanding wife Betty. Against all the odds, they later had a daughter, Jessica.

There were three series of the hit comedy as well as three Christmas specials from 1973-1978.

Crawford did all his own stunts and was involved in some hair-raising slapstick antics - dangling over a cliff-edge from the exhaust pipe of a Morris Minor, roller-skating underneath a moving articulated lorry, dangling underneath a helicopter and risking destruction under the wheels of a moving train in a way that would not have been tolerated by television companies and their insurers a few years later.

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was a huge hit. A repeat of one episode in 1979 managed to attract 20.4 million viewers.

Frank Spencer transformed Crawford into a household name but these days he is much better known for his singing and his successful roles in the stage hits Barnum and Phantom of the Opera.