Up Pompeii was a British television comedy series of the 1970s. Written by, among others, the Carry On films' Talbot Rothwell. It starred Frankie Howerd. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Carry On films were a long-running series of British popular low-budget comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. ... Frankie Howerd (born Francis Alex Howard in York, England, 6 March 1917 - not 1922 as he claimed; died in London, 19 April 1992) was a distinctive English comedian and comic actor. ...

Set in ancient Pompeii (pre-eruption) Howerd played a slave, Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io). The other main characters were Lurcio's master the senator Ludicrus Sextus (initially Max Adrian and then Wallas Eaton), the senator's wife Ammonia (Elizabeth Larner), his daughter Erotica (Georgina Moon) and his son Nausius (Kerry Gardner) (who wrote, surprisingly, not very rude odes), along with Senna the Soothsayer (Jeanne Mockford) and Plautus (Willie Rushton). Guest stars included a number of 'Carry on Girls' with Barbara Windsor, Wendy Richard and Valerie Leon all having parts. Ruins in Pompeii The city of Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many smaller places around the Bay of Naples, were Roman municipalities destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The eruption was described by Pliny the Younger (see below), whose uncle Pliny the Elder died... William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton (August 18, 1937–December 11, 1996) was a British cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer. ... Barbara Windsor MBE (born Barbara-Ann Deeks on August 6, 1937, in Shoreditch, London) is a British actress. ... Wendy Richard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Valerie Leon is a British actress, regarded as something of a cult figure due to her roles in a number of high profile British film franchises. Leon has appeared in several of the Carry On films, been both an official and unofficial Bond girl - having played the hotel receptionist in...

The set-up was little more than a backdrop for an endless series of double entendres and risqué gags. Howerd was the key to most of the gags and he started each episode with a prologue - a 'to camera' that would usually never get finished and rarely had anything at all to do with the actual episode plot.

Although not officially acknowledged as such, the programme was clearly inspired by the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, also set in Ancient Rome. Howerd had recently played the similar role of the slave Pseudolus in a London stage run of the musical, and there were parallels between some other characters. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. ...

There were thirteen 30-minute episodes in two series (March - May and September - October 1970). In addition there were the pilot episode (1969) and two special episodes entitled Further Up Pompeii, one in 1975 and the other in 1991. (Full episode guide below.) March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... This article is about the month of May. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with 30 days. ... October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... A television pilot is the first episode of an intended television series. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The show 'inspired' three films. The first was also called Up Pompeii (1971) and added such characters as Bilius, Voluptua, Scrubba and Villanus. The film ended with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and had a brief epilogue in which Howerd played a modern-day museum guide showing off the petrified remains of the Pompeiian characters. 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Mount Vesuvius (Italian: Monte Vesuvio) is a volcano east of Naples, Italy, located at 40°49′ N 14°26′ E. It is the only active volcano on the European mainland, although it is not currently erupting. ... A museum is typically a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence of people and their environment. ...

The two sequels were Up the Chastity Belt (1971) and Up the Front (1972) which transferred the Howerd's character to Medieval times and World War I respectively. 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ...

The show also inspired a similar TV series, Whoops, Baghdad, also starring Frankie Howerd. The original proposed title, Up Baghdad, was rejected because it was felt that it might have been seen as supportive of the then-current Iraqi regime. A quasi-follow up, Then Churchill Said To Me set in a World War II army camp was produced in 1982, but not broadcast until after Howerd's death (on satellite channel UK Gold) due to BBC concerns about offending the public in view of the then Falklands War. Wikipedia will not tolerate irrelevant posts. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom. ... The Falklands War or the Malvinas War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was an armed conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas, between March and June of 1982. ...

A DVD Release?

A long-overdue complete release of the series on DVD may soon come to pass. No complete home video release has yet been undertaken due to the nature of the videotape master materials. Like many television series made before the advent of the collectable VHS, master tapes of British television productions were often thought to be worthless and erased to be reused (for such reasons as copyright restrictions allowing only one repeat, black & white series being determined as unrepeatable with the advent of colour, and even a physical lack of the necessary archival storage space). In the case of Up Pompeii (et al), copies were sold internationally, where, once their broadcasts had occurred were contractually obliged to be returned to the BBC or destroyed... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording television pictures and accompanying sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ... Top view VHS cassette with US Quarter for scale Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed The Video Home System, first released in 1976, better known by its acronym VHS, is a recording and playing standard for video cassette recorders (VCRs), developed by JVC (with some of its... For copyright issues in relation to Wikipedia itself, see Wikipedia:Copyrights. ...

In the late 1970s, following a change in the BBC's archival policy, parts of the series were located in the Canadian CBC archive. Due to the differences in international broadcasting, these copies had been converted to the North American NTSC television videotape standard, thus one chunk of the series remained in their native PAL format, and another was found in a poorly-converted (dating long before digital conversion methods) NTSC state. These Canadian finds plugged every gap in the BBC's Up Pompeii archive, however the picture quality of some was not up to the exacting standards of the BBC, and so their marketablilty was severely limited. A VHS release was therefore out of the question. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

In 2004/2005, through the success of a group of BBC employees' restoration work on similar NTSC-only productions of Doctor Who (specifically the Jon Pertwee adventure 'Claws Of Axos'), the BBC decided to convert all their NTSC-only productions (as reclaimed from various international stations) back to their original PAL format using a newly created, computer controlled process - Reverse Standards Conversion. A PAL-like, high(er) quality image resulted in a more stable picture and more enjoyable viewing experience for an audience. And so, after 35 years, a complete and restored Up Pompeii may once again be available... Main article: History of Doctor Who Doctor Who first appeared on BBC television at 5:15 p. ...

Episode Guide

Pilot (BBC2)

• Comedy Playhouse: Up Pompeii! (17 Sep 69)

Series 1 (BBC2)

• Vestal Virgins (30 Mar 70)
• The Ides Of March (6 Apr 70)
• The Senator And The Asp (13 Apr 70)
• Britaniccus (20 Apr 70)
• The Actors (27 Apr 70)
• Spartacus (4 May 70)
• The Love Potion (11 May 70)

Series 2 (BBC2)

• The Legacy (14 Sep 70)
• Roman Holiday (21 Sep 70)
• James Bondus (28 Sep 70)
• The Peace Treaty (5 Oct 70)
• Nymphia (12 Oct 70)
• Exodus (19 Oct 70)

Special (BBC2)

• Further Up Pompeii! (31 Mar 75)

Special (ITV/LWT)

• Further Up Pompeii (14 Dec 91)

Also See

Titter This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

External Links

• British Film Institute Screen Online