Raymond Allen

Raymond John Allen (15 March 1940 – 2 October 2022) was a British television screenwriter and playwright. He was best known for creating the 1970s BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. He wrote comedy sketches for entertainers Frankie Howerd and Dave Allen, and later Max Wall, Little and Large and Hale and Pace. His father, Les Allen, worked as a railway supervisor; his mother was Ivy (Ayley). Allen attended Ryde Secondary Modern School in his hometown until he was sixteen. He started out as a cub reporter for newspaper the Isle of Wight Times, but quit after 18 months due to the unsocial hours he had to work. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force, working at its accounts office in Gloucestershire for three years. Upon returning to the island, he took jobs washing dishes in hotels and cleaning at Shanklin's Regal Cinema.

The script for his first sitcom was rejected by ITV, but his second script, conceived under the working title Have A Break, Take A Husband, was accepted by the BBC. It revolves around a couple, Frank and Betty Spencer, taking their honeymoon at a hotel; however, BBC producer and director Michael Mills thought the story would be better reserved for later in a series (it became episode 4), with the first episode instead featuring Frank Spencer becoming a sales rep; these plans became the series Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Michael Crawford was cast in the starring role and created many of the character's traits himself. He had more positive results on the stage with One of Our Howls Is Missing, which toured in 1979.

Later life and death In 2016, Allen contributed some of the dialogue to a special one-off episode of Some Mothers' Do 'Ave 'Em for charity Sport Relief in association with BBC Sport. She had one son from a previous relationship.

Writing credits Production Notes Broadcaster Ref Dave Allen at Large "Episode #1.1" (1971) BBC1 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em 22 episodes (1973–1975, 1978) BBC1 The Little and Large Show 9 episodes (1978) BBC1