By 1946 he was appearing on Variety Bandbox, the BBC's regular showcase for new talent.

It was while working on the programme that Howerd first developed a comic partnership with writer Eric Sykes.

He had already developed his (apparently) shambolic style of delivery - aided in part by crippling stage fright - and catchphrases such as "Oh please yourself" and "Not on your Nellie" but it was with Sykes's help that the Howerd character was fully honed: his routines usually finding him ever more reluctantly explaining how he was ever more reluctantly placed in ever more extraordinary situations (such as having to transport an elephant on the underground).

The pair carried on the path already trodden by Sykes, then handed over duties to yet another bright new writer, Johnny Speight.

The programme was a huge success, so much so that a special episode (written by Sykes with help from Spike Milligan) was broadcast live from the Radio Show at Earl's Court.

Although it saw him become one of the country's leading performers, The Frankie Howerd Show failed to cement the star's place in history.  By the time the series ended in 1956, there were already signs his career was heading into one of its periodic declines.

Nonetheless in providing a vehicle for one of the country's greatest comics and an outlet for some brilliant comic writers, it richly deserves a place in comedy history.