Quintessential Comedy | Devoted to British Comedy

[singlepic=24,320,240,,right]I absolutely loved Up Pompeii with its wonderful double entendres and busty girls draped in Roman togas and the like when it was repeated in the early 1990s on BBC Two.  It was written by Talbot Rothwell who brought us he Carry On! Films, and the similarities are obvious.

Howerd was of course Lurcio, the lowly servant of a senator, Ludicrus Sextus, whose daughter was the lovely Erotica while his wife was Ammonia, who was rather keen on being entertained by various male guests.

The series was based on the play “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” in which Howerd had appeared in the late 1960s, and ran for 2 original series (1969-1970) and two spinoffs, in 1975 and 1991, shortly before Frankie Howerd passed away.

While successful as an actor and stand up comedian, Howerd will always be remembered mainly for Up Pompeii, a series designed around his stand up routine of addressing the camera/audience directly, full to the rafters will saucy innuendoes and knowing glances to the camera.