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  • The Oldie

    Frankie goes to Canada

    Aug 25, 2021 6 minutes

    I have to confess I was desperate. I was working in Toronto and my agent put me up for a new comedy that was to star Frankie Howerd.

    The 1976 comedy series was originally to be called Oooh, Canada! But they quickly changed that to The Frankie Howerd Show when they realised he had a surprising following among Canadian viewers.

    Although born and brought up an Australian, I decided I would go to this audition reading as a Canadian – and a berserk one at that. The part was the idiot son of Mrs Otterby with the very ‘end of the pier’ name of Hardin I Otterby. Thanks to my ability with accents, I was able to pull off being an outrageous Canadian idiot lad, and in doing so made the writers laugh. Which got me the role for the pilot.

    When Frankie arrived to do the pilot, I decided I had to continue to talk like a real Canadian and not in my normal Australian accent at any time, or I

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