Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me is a one-off television Biopic drama about the career of comedian Frankie Howerd and his relationship with his partner Dennis Heymer. The programme was part of the BBC's Curse of Comedy season, which was a series of individual dramas about the turbulent private lives of famous British comedians.
Provides examples of:
- Blitz Evacuees: Dennis was evacuated as a kid, during which time he thought his mother had died. It wasn't until after the war that he found out that she was alive and that she wanted him to believe she was dead because she ran off with another man.
- Fag Hag: Jane, who says she finds the experience of being a hag "quite agreeable" when Frankie asks her if she's worried that being his beard has damaged her prospects.
- Gayngst: Frankie is unable to separate being gay from the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.
- Love at First Sight: The moment when Dennis and Frankie first catch sight of each other is overplayed with Frankie telling a joke about a young gamekeeper seeing a beautiful girl in the woods.
- Momma's Boy: Frankie.
- Title Drop: The title comes from a line near the start of the film, where Frankie uses Dennis as a meat shield after a gunman enters the bar Dennis works in.
