Up Pompeii!

Up Pompeii!
Up Pompeii! opening title.
Written by	Talbot Rothwell Sid Colin
Starring	Frankie Howerd Max Adrian Elizabeth Larner Kerry Gardner
Composer(s)	Alan Braden
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	16 (including Further Up Pompeii)
Production
Producer(s)	Michael Mills David Croft Sydney Lotterby
Running time	30-45 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC1, ITV (1991)
Original release	1969 – 1970 1975 1991

Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991.

Up Pompeii! began as a Comedy Playhouse. Michael Mills and Tom Sloan, from BBC Comedy and Light Entertainment, were visiting the ruins of Pompeii. Since Mills had recently seen Frankie Howerd in the play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum he casually remarked to Sloan that he half expected Frankie Howerd to appear coming round some corner. Sloan had replied 'Why not?', and the idea for the comedy took root. Talbot Rothwell was invited to write a script and the designer Sally Hulke visited Pompeii with a sketch book and camera to ensure some realism and authenticity in the production's look.

A slight variation of this history of the show's development is related by Bill Cotton who, in an interview with author Graham McCann on 6 June 2000, said that Mills, the BBC's then Head of Comedy, prompted by the plays of Plautus, came up with the idea for the show for Frankie Howerd. Mills had seen the London stage production of the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, set in ancient Rome, and had thought that there might be more mileage to be drawn from Howerd's role as the slave Pseudolus. There were concerns in the Corporation's copyright department that the parallels between the musical and the comedy series might lead to litigation over possible plagiarism, but Rothwell told the BBC that he had seen neither the stage musical nor its film adaptation.