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Posts Tagged ‘up pompeii’

Frankie Howerd – Up Pompeii!

Monday, April 7th, 2008

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.

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Tags: ammonia, erotica, frankie howerd, lurcio, up pompeii
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Ooh Titter Ye Not!

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Let’s call it “Frankie Howerd Week” on Quintessential Comedy, as we look forward to the upcoming Howerd mini biopic to close the Curse of Comedy series this Wednesday.

As a stand up comic, Howerd’s routine was apparently a ramshackle display of stories that are interrupted by Frankie’s customary asides, mini stories and direct addressing of various (fictional?) audience members.

“Ooh NO Missus!”

“Titter ye Not!”

“No, don’t it’s wicked to mock the afflicted.”

They’re all quintessential Frankie Howerd, and all dispatched over a long career with wonderful timing to a long series of willing and loving audiences.

Howerd is of course famous for these catchphrases, as well as his very distinctive voice which has been mimicked by impressionists and students for years. This Wednesday David Walliams portrays Howerd in final Curse of Comedy, “Rather You Than Me”, and commented after the series was announced that “Matt Lucas and I first bonded as struggling comedians over a shared love of Frankie Howerd impressions.”

Oh behave!