Up Pompeii

23 March 1970 was the start of the first series of Up Pompeii, a repeat of the pilot shown as a Comedy Playhouse the previous year. The Radio Times said it was loosely based on the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum and the works of Roman playwright Plautus. However it was written by Talbot Rothwell, in a broad style that owed a greater debt to the Carry On films he had scripted.

Frankie Howerd was the star of the show, and expert at extracting every innuendo from the punning script. He played Lurcio, household slave to Senator Ludicrus Sextus and his wife Ammonia, and to their children Erotica and Nausia. Every episode began with Lurcio attempting to declaim The Prologue in the manner of a Greek chorus. He never got very far as he was always interrupted by Senna the soothsayer, predicting doom. Howerd played to the studio audience, reacting to their laughter with the range of looks and saucy remarks that were his trademark, peppering his speech with anachronistic remarks.

Up Pompeii ran for two very successful series and became a feature film. Howerd died in 1992 but his place as an icon of British comedy is assured.