Tribute screening for Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em writer Raymond Allen

Tributes have been paid to the writer of the classic sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em at a special screening of some of its most popular scenes.

Raymond Allen, who lived on the Isle of Wight, died in 2022 having created in Frank Spencer one of the most enduring characters in TV comedy history.

He had admitted there was "quite a lot" of himself in the hapless Frank.

New digitally remastered scenes of the 1970s show were shown at a cinema screening for BBC Children in Need.

Allen wrote a total of 22 episodes of the sitcom following the tribulations of the well-meaning and utterly accident-prone Frank Spencer and his wife Betty.

It originally ran from 1973, attracting audiences of up to 20 million with Michael Crawford's character delivering immortal lines like "Oooh Betty" and "the cat's done a whoopsie in my beret".

A part-time cinema cleaner in his 30s, Allen had been writing for more than 10 years and had 48 scripts rejected before he struck the formula that would become TV gold.

Despite his success, he remained living with his parents in Ryde, writing episodes in a shed in the garden and taking part in script conferences with BBC executives in the local public phone box.

Michele Dotrice, who played Betty, described him as a "treasure of the Isle of Wight".

"He was so naive and innocent in a totally non-theatrical kind of way - just very, very sweet man and a superb writer," she said.

"The stuff he wrote for Michael and I was just amazing."

She recalled the scene in which Betty told Frank he was going to become a father.

"Frank misconstrues it completely - the pitter patter of tiny feet - he thinks he's going to get another cat!

"Ray wrote it so beautifully and it was quite touching and moving.

"He was a charming, charming man. He was out of his time really - to me he was Frank Spencer," she said.

The similarity between Frank and himself was something Allen touched on in a BBC South television news report in 1975.

"There's a lot of things that happened to Frank have happened to me," he admitted.

He recalled a time he flooded a toilet when asked to mend a pipe at the cinema in Ryde where he worked.

"After those years of waiting for success I wasn't really geared for it. Everything has happened terribly quickly," he said.

He later recalled finding out his script had been commissioned.

"I was mopping the ladies loos and remembered I had a letter from the BBC in my pocket. It said, 'We'd like you to come to London to work for us'. I was so excited," he said.

"I rushed and told the other cleaners. They looked at me and one said said, 'I cant understand that - you'd think they'd have their own cleaners'."

The show became renowned for its heart-stopping stunts - all performed by Crawford himself.

Many have passed into TV folklore - including a runaway Frank rollerskating over a concrete bollard and left hanging off the back of a car off a Dorset clifftop

In a message sent to those attending a screening of classic episodes at Southampton's Harbour Lights Cinema, Michael Crawford said Allen wrote "with the most amazing gift".

"I could never have found that character [Frank], without his wondrous ability to write about innocent naivety. I loved his humour and bless the day our paths crossed," he added.

Many of the classic scenes have been remastered from the original 16mm film negatives and were shown in HD for the first time at the screening at Harbour Lights Picturehouse in Southampton.

Allen's widow Nancy Williams, who was in the audience, said he would have been "absolutely astounded, delighted" at the interest in the show 50 years after it was first broadcast.

"He could never understand how people loved Some Mothers so much after all these years," she said.

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