Like Noel Coward, Crawford has a talent to amuse - though in the
performing rather than creative sense. Add to this warm, wide,
friendly smile, a good voice and the skill (acquired by
determination and considerable courage) to execute his own
hazardous stunts, and you have a unique all-round theatrical
performer - one obviously destined for fame. It was to be a journey
that would carry the unknown lad from Kent's Isle of Sheppey (on
the very edge of England, where it meets the North Sea) by way of
television's 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave' Em' to the starriest theatres
of London and America, as the athletic lead-player in 'Barnum', and
virtuoso of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's record-breaking 'Phantom of the
Opera'. It wasn't of course all smooth sailing, and inevitably the
very demanding roles, and the adulation they brought, exacted their
toll. While the crowds roared their approval and adoration, cracks
began to appear in Crawford's happy family life. It was a hardprice
to pay, and behind the public popularity it isn't difficult to
guess at a core of well-disguised loneliness. A not unusual
theatrical story - of highs and lows, disappointments, triumphs,
emotional mistakes and thespian togetherness; but told here by the
man himself with ingenuous charm, honesty, gratitude to all those
who helped, and taught him his craft - and a kind of awe at his
incredible luck. (Kirkus UK)
By turns hilarious, revelatory and desperately sad, here is the autobiography of the man whose successes 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, he was surrounde d 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 business, and his early failures with girls are lifted by his abiding sense of the absurd. Both in his private life and his work he begins a lifetime's habit of pratfalls that he would later turn to good use in the character of Frank Spencer in 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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