I was surprised to see the complete Up Pompeii, a 1969 British tv show, posted on YouTube. It's not something that's out in the US but that's not too surprising, I kind of doubt that anyone around here would have even heard of it. I remember seeing the show as a teen in Winnipeg. In fact the NTSC tapes of the show that the CBC played in 1970 the only known copies of the show after the BBC had murdered their copies. You know, 'cause they're gits. Later other NTSC tapes were found and the techniques used on the Doctor Who restorations were used to restore the 525 line NTSC standard copies to the 625 line PAL standard needed in the UK. The series was rebroadcast in the UK in 2006, the same year the DVDs came out. Someone has been nice enough to post the series recently. Not sure how long they'll be up. You might like them if you liked any of the Carry On series. Frankie Howerd was in some of the later Carry On films. Up Pompeii writer Talbot Rothwell worked on the Carry On films too. Up Pompeii is that sort of humour. I find it entertaining but I saw those shows when I was a kid so I'm probably biased. The humor is hardly subtle but it's the 60's and things aren't as raw as they are on Comedy Central nowadays. Up Pompeii is more cerebral than you might think.
Up Pompeii was created to take advantage of Frankie Howerd's growing popularity. He'd had a great 2 year run in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. The play opened in London in 1963 with Howerd in the role of the conniving slave Pseudolus. Zero Mostel played the part in the original Broadway show in 1962 though the producers had wanted Phil Silvers. Zero would go on to repeat his role in the movie. Jon Pertwee had a part in the London production of the play. There was an Up Pompeii pilot, that aired September 1969, and it must have proved popular enough for the series to go forward the following year. There were two short series, one in the spring and one in the fall, that totaled 13 episodes. There were two more short specials in 1975 and 1991 . All 14 of the regular episodes are on YouTube as I write this but I couldn't find the specials. Oh well, I'm pretty sure there's more than enough episodes for most people. I got all the way through them but occasionally I was drifting off and now all the shows run together. I was sure glad to see them. I might even watch some of them again, if they're still there in a few months and I find I'm running out of stuff from the library and NetFlix.
Frankie Howerd has a long career with many ups and downs. He started in show biz in 1946 and continued working until he died in 1992. He somewhat of an acquired taste for most. It's pretty broad humor. Very campy. I do like his double takes and facial muggings. He's a natural at talking to the audience. Breaking the fourth wall, as it were. He slips it right in, you hardly felt a thing, he's that good. You can see a documentary about Frankie here and a special on British Camp Comedy here. Here's a documentary about sexy British girls in tv and movies that mentions the Bond movies. the Carry On movies and Up Pompeii. Here's Frankie in The Runaway Bus, an OK British mystery movie. More than enough good stuff to watch. Get busy.
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