First watched : 24 May 1974
Well here's another case of memory playing tricks : I'd have sworn blind this was on ITV and broadcast much earlier, around the time of Ace of Wands and Pardon My Genie.
The Small World of Samuel Tweet was a vehicle for comedian Freddie "Parrot Face" Davies, the grandson of a music hall comedian. He made his name on Opportunity Knocks in 1964 with a shaggy dog story about a pet shop and was still mining the scenario for laughs ten years later with these two short and never-repeated series about a pet shop owner with a thing for birds. Freddie's gimmicks were a black Homburg rammed as low as he could get it and a splutter every few words. Even back then I thought he was f**king awful and I very much doubt the series has aged well ( two episodes at least have survived ).
Freddie was something of an anachronism even at the time and after the series ended in 1975 he started slipping out of view. He started moving into entertainments management while maintaining a presence on TV with a semi-regular spot on Punchlines. The failure of his company in the mid-eighties forced him to work for a time on American cruise ships.
When he returned to the UK in the nineties he sought to re-position himself as a straight actor with great success. He had regular roles in Harbour Lights and Born and Bred . He appeared in the 1995 film Funny Bones based on his grandfather and in one of the Harry Potter films.
Freddie published his autobiography last year and at 77 is still treading the boards as a comedian in regional theatres. He is by all accounts a really nice guy so long may he continue.
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