Frank Spencer, the main character in this 1970's sitcom was the daft, hazadous man who traipsed through life causing mayhem and chaos wherever he went.
I used to love this show when I was a child.
I have been watching the endless repeats on G.O.L.D on Sky and it has occured to me that he has autism.
I know back then autism was rarely heard of and those children and adults with it were either hidden away in the family home, locked up in mental institutions, or were referred to by locals as the 'eccentric or weird' one.
Michael Crawford who played the role of Frank must have been inspired by person or persons he had met. The same as the writer and creator of the show, Raymond Allen who created Frank and the situations he encountered.
An examples of what has made me think there is an autism link is that
Frank approaches a man in a car and the man remarks sarcastically that it is raining cats and dogs (or similar) and Frank looks bemused and gazes up at the sky almost expecting cats and dogs to be falling. We know that with autists they can take these phrases as literal and find it hard to understand why we would say that.
Frank seems almost oblivious to his behaviours and the causes and effect he has when he attempts to 'help' people. Exploding gas ovens, cars rolling off a hill, 'fixing' furniture (that then breaks).
In later epsiodes we see him try to understand why everyone dislikes him. He visits a physchiatrist and proceeds to tell him he is a failure. By the end of the episode the physchiatrist agrees with him.
We see him struggle to comprehend and makes such noises as "oooooo" when he is trying to work out what has just happened or what someone has just said.
His gait is also very fragile and faltering as if he lacks the ability to be strong and forthright.
The way the character was written and acted made him likeable and we were drawn to rooting for him and feeling sorry for him.
There is no malice intended, but fun is poked at him to create laughs.
I may have looked too deeply into this sitcom, but writers do draw on personal experiences and real life family and friends. The character of Del Boy in Only Fools is based on a man the writer, John Sullivan, knew of, and many of the episodes and incidents were genuine occurances that he saw or was told of. So it can seem logical that Frank Spencer is based on a real life autist.
