Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me

I saw this rather dull and odd drama when it was shown 15 years ago on BBC4 and had, unsurprisingly, forgotten all about it. But in 2023 the BBC showed it again and I can see why I had forgotten it.

Frankie Howerd was a British comedy legend, a master raconteur and a complicated man. However very little of what made him popular comes across in this rather boring tv movie. The film seems to be obsessed by his closet homosexuality and relationship with Dennis Haymer. It also finishes in the early 1970s, just as . About twenty years before he died, missing out a large chunk of his later career.

David Walliams may have been a huge fan of Howerd but he gives a strange interpretation of the character, lacking in conviction and a bit bland, whilst Rafe Spall and the late Dilys Laye seem very underused. Out of all the 'comedy greats' season TV movies that were shown on BBC4 in 2008, this is by far the least interesting and adds very little to the Howerd legend. Walliams seems a bit out of his depth too and the dullness of the script really doesn't help. And the way the film ends is what inspired me to say 'Is that it?' as the title of this review, because that genuinely was my reaction.

This programme only serves as a kick in the backside to the memory of Frankie Howerd. In this he's portrayed as the most boring person to ever walk the face of the planet, albeit via a pretty decent impression by David Walliams. Good actor, crap script.

If you want to see an inaccurate story (I use the term story very loosely) of a comedy legend interlaced with a load of pointless homo-erotic scenes and watch a pretty good impression of Frankie Howard but doing the worlds unfunniest stand up routines then this is for you. Personally I think its an insult to Mr Howerds memory. He may have been a depressive and he may have been homosexual but if you're going to devote an entire show to Just those two aspects of him and exaggerate them massively, at least have the decency to have some sort of story to it.

It starts , plods along and ends. I finished watching it not two minutes ago and couldn't tell you what it was about! Shame really, because Walliams voice and demeanour were perfect, Rafe Spall's acting was excellent, everything else about the film was not.

Dennis Heymer is working as a waiter when he first meets Frankie Howerd, who is famous but is not having the best period of his career. At first their interactions are little more than homosexual trysts followed by awkwardness and Dennis heading home but with persistence Dennis manages to form a sort of relationship with Howerd. A difficult character to love, this film follows the intimate and professional relationship between the two through personal tragedy and a revival of Howerd's career.

I didn't do it on purpose but my brief plot summary points to the problem with this film in the way that it seems to be more about Dennis than Frankie Howerd and indeed that is how the film seems to play out. Rather than just using Dennis as a narrative device (a "way in" to the character of Howerd) the film puts him as the main character and so for much of it we are following his story rather than Howerd's or, where Howerd does something we get the event not as something that happened but as how it emotionally impacted on Dennis. In terms of general story-telling this is all well and good and I was reasonably interested by it, however in a film that was meant to be about Frankie Howerd it only serves to annoy and detract.

It was a real shame because the other "Curse of Comedy" films had been pretty good and focused on the subjects so I'm not sure why this one managed to miss the mark so badly. In terms of general impression Wailliams does pretty well as Howerd but he falls down in key areas. The main failing I do not think is really his because it is with the character and the material and focus is not there in the making to help him with this. The secondary failing is that Wailliams' Howerd is not funny – and I say this as a fan of the great man. Spall's performance is better but again this may be because the material offered him more to work with. The supporting cast is solid but they cannot make up for the material and focus of delivery.

I was looking forward to Rather You Than Me because I had just watched the really good "Curse of Steptoe" and do like Howerd and I was disappointed that this film seemed more interested in Dennis, leaving Frankie Howerd a secondary character in a film that was meant to be about him.

Frankie Howerd was a comedian who had his ups and downs but had suprisong longevity.

I remember watching his ITV show as a kid in the early 1980s and my older brother saying straight afterwards that was dire.

By the end of the 80s he was hip with the university student crowd. I think one of his tours was labelled, 'Get your titters out!'This television movie reminds you that the same happened to Howerd in the early 1960s. When he fell in with the emerging comedy crowd such as Peter Cook.

This drama is more about Frankie Howerd (David Walliams) and his secret relationship with long term lover and later manager Dennis Heymer (Rafe Spall.)

They had a discreet relationship at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Even when it was legal Howerd gave an impression that he had a female companion. Then there were those sitcoms such as Up Pompeii where he had a a lecherous eye for the ladies.

Here Howerd is guilty and embarrassed about his homosexuality. Yet he picks up casual young men for sex. Only after he died stories emerged of his predatory behaviour with young men, like wanting massages and getting naked in front of them.

Although sad and melancholy. It was more about Heymer than Howerd when the latter was the star. The other problem was that Walliams is not a strong enough actor to do Howerd justice.

When this drama was made in 2008, Walliams was a big television star. Here he just did not feel like Frankie Howerd to me.

Something only the British could do: turn a national treasure into a boring, kitchen sink subject matter. I agree with what others have said; Raif Spall and David Walliams do a good acting job, but the story is hopelessly lackluster. I recently watched Howerd on some old Michael Parkinson interviews, and there's a day and night difference between what's depicted in this movie and what Howerd was actually like. He came over as an articulate, charming, open person who was remarkably frank (no pun intended). No wonder his sister didn't like this film. My recollection is that Haymer didn't like it either, even though it's essentially about him with Howerd tagged on. This is the sad fate that lies in store for successful Brit comedians: an inaccurate, depressing, posthumous biopic that misrepresents their life as if it were some kind of Greek tragedy that was doomed to failure from the start.