By turns hilarious, revelatory and desperately sad,
here is the autobiography of the man whose TV and stage
appearances such as Hello Dolly!, Some Mothers Do 'Ave
'Em and The Phantom of the Opera have made him a
national institution. The story of the true identity of
his father, which is behind this book's title, leads
into an evocative depiction of his tender childhood
years. Whilst all the men were away at war, Crawford was
surrounded by loving women. For him this was an idyllic
wartime childhood, but the return of the men in
peacetime signalled darker times to come. Crawford's
infectious enjoyment of stage work illumines his account
of his early struggles to make a name for himself in the
theatre business, and his early failures with girls are
lifted by his abiding sense of the absurd. Both in his
private life and his work as a successful actor and TV
comedian, he begins a lifetime's habit of pratfalls that
he would later turn to good use in the character of
Frank Spencer in smash hit 1970s TV comedy show Some
Mothers Do'Ave 'Em.His talent for mimicry makes the
great personalities in his life come alive on the page;
people he has worked with, including Benjamin Britten
who taught him to sing, John Lennon - with whom he
shared a villa - and Oliver Reed, Michael Winner, Barbra
Steisand, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. |
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