Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em: Series 2, Episode 2 (Summary)
The RAF Reunion
First Aired: 29-11-1973
Written by: Raymond Allen
Frank Spencer is going to his RAF reunion the following evening and he has been sleepwalking. He always gets excited about the reunions and when Betty comes downstairs and finds him wrestling with one of the lamps she suggests that, if it is going to affect him like this, perhaps he should not go.
Frank is insistent though. He tells Betty he needs to keep up to date. What if there is another World War? He could be recalled at any minute and he has been keeping his equipment in good order:
- RAF braces
- Brush (clothes-type), one of
- Socks, two pairs of
The following evening Frank stalks into the reunion, wearing his RAF braces and socks and is very probably the only person who is wearing original issue socks and braces. If he isn’t he is certainly the only one who is wearing a beret.
Frank goes to the reunion every year, but never tells anyone his station or command. The top-brass find it strange that he keeps it such a secret and the Air Commandant seems resigned to the fact that they will never learn the truth. Maybe they won’t but the viewer does because the Commandant’s words are the cue for a flashback sequence to Franks training days.
With a locker stuffed full of prune juice and other assorted remedies and treatments, Frank is an unusual cadet to say the least and the fact that he refuses to take off his pants in front of the other members of the dormitory, and undresses under his bedcovers-with a torch-offers very little hope of his ever being accepted by the other recruits.
Needles to say Frank has a few problems fitting in and when he is called before his Commanding Officer Frank is asked why he decided to join the RAF.
“Well, it’s not a very inspiring testimonial, is it?” The CO says. “You’ve got bad feet, bad eyes, bad knees, bad ears; and you joined the RAF because no one else would have you!”
Frank is willing to give it all he has got, but the CO wonders if the RAF is ready for all that Frank has got and he does the only thing he can do; he sends Frank for an aircrew medical. Once he is outside of the main gates he will be someone else’s problem, and he certainly is. Frank is a problem to everyone he meets, especially officer Fowler who has to give Frank his aptitude test.
Fans of the BBC television series Porridge will probably recognize the actor who played Fowler because it is none other than Fulton Mackay, who later went on to give the inmates of Slade Prison such a hard time.
Incidentally, whoever it was that said, “Square pegs will not go into round holes,” had never met Frank Spencer.
CAST
| Frank Spencer | ~~~ | Michael Crawford |
| Betty Spencer | ~~~ | Michele Dotrice |
| Pianist (in Frank’s Dream) | ~~~ | David Rowley |
| Third GI | ~~~ | Alan Chuntz |
| Air Commodore Drew | ~~~ | Desmond Llewelyn |
| Group Captain Firth | ~~~ | Norman Shelley |
| Harris | ~~~ | John Pollendine |
| Roberts | ~~~ | Roger Dene |
| Horace | ~~~ | Leonard Gregory |
| Airman in Billet | ~~~ | Richard Eden |
| Airman in Billet | ~~~ | Michael Reeves |
| Pilot Officer Baker | ~~~ | David Quilter |
| Flight Sergeant | ~~~ | Blain Fairman |
| Wing Commander Day | ~~~ | Michael Gwynn |
| Orderly | ~~~ | Kenneth Watson |
| Carter | ~~~ | Robert Sansom |
| Brown | ~~~ | Ben Aris |
| Hayward | ~~~ | Richard Blomfield |
| Squadron Leader | ~~~ | Richard McNeff |
| Fowler (Herbert) | ~~~ | Fulton Mackay |
| Airman in Billet | ~~~ | Mark Allington |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | Arthur Parry |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | Joe Santo |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | Richard Sheekey |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | David Bache |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | Frederick Wolfe |
| Extra at Reunion | ~~~ | Patrick Wright |
| Christie | ~~~ | Chris Sullivan |
| Barman Extra | ~~~ | Nick Thompson Hill |
