Francis Alick Howerd, known as Frankie Howerd OBE (6 March, 1917 – 19 April, 1992) was a distinctive English comedian and comic actor whose career spanned six decades. His routine was distinctive for including double entendres, with Howerd berating his audience for taking the bawdier interpretation. At various times he was the most popular comedian in Britain, but his career suffered in the late 1950s before a revival in the 1960s, including starring in Up Pompeii!. He was undergoing a second revival in the early 1990s at the time of his sudden death.

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• Oooh noo, please, it's wicked to mock the afflicted! Well it might be one of your own! Don't laugh at her, she might want paying - I told her this was an audition! She's known to me as Madam Vera Roper, but she's known to everyone else as The English Open!
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A744914
  • Frankie introducing Mrs Vera Roper, his pianist, who was deaf.

• Very clever, all those boys are, very clever boys. I think they should turn professional. They tell me now they've learned to put on make-up. Soon they're going to use it on the stage!
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A744914

• I was on a cycle rally and we were passing Chequers – I thought, I'll nip in. I'm sorry – I told him. I was very forthright, stupid to be anything else. I said, "Harold, be careful", I said, "Harold, don't rush into this, I beg you." I don't think he got the message. Well, it's very difficult when you're shouting through a letter box!
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A744914
  • Frankie often joked about Prime Minister of the day, Harold Macmillan