BFI to screen US Up Pompeii! pilot
A pilot for an American adaptation of Up Pompeii! is to be seen for the first time.
Starring Frankie Howerd, Up The Toga was produced in 1972 for the US network ABC, following the huge success of the British original (from 1969) and its feature film offspring.
Never broadcast and long thought lost in the depths of American television archives, TV recovery and heritage organisation Kaleidoscope recently recovered and comprehensively restored a copy of the programme.
It will now be seen by members of the public for the very first time on Saturday 5th August, at a special BFI Missing Believed Wiped event celebrating Kaleidoscope's 35 years of operation.
Tickets are now available from the BFI directly.
The event will also see the launch of a number of products, including a retrospective book and DVD about comedian Dickie Henderson, and the screening of a number of other Kaleidoscope finds.
Sitcom writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran will also be on hand, introducing the unbroadcast pilot episode of their breakthrough television sitcom, early 80s role-reversal comedy Holding The Fort, starring Patricia Hodge as a military servicewoman and Peter Davison as her husband and stay-at-home dad to their newborn baby.
Other finds to be shown include Doctor Who, The Bee Gees, Those Wonderful TV Times, and a 1965 adaptation of Charles Dickens's ghost story The Signalman.
Kaleidoscope CEO Chris Perry says: "Only one film print copy was ever made of Up The Toga: what were the chances of finding it again 50 years later? We're thrilled to be able to share these finds with the Missing Believed Wiped audience at BFI Southbank."
BFI Archive Television Programmer and Missing Believed Wiped boss Dick Fiddy added: "Kaleidoscope and its wide-ranging membership of TV historians, researchers, enthusiasts and collectors, have been vital contributors to Missing Believed Wiped over the years. This celebratory line-up covers the television waterfront from unaired pilots, to precious Doctor Who clips, from rare music performances to fascinating interviews - a typical eclectic mix from Kaleidoscope."
Up Pompeii
A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands, listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den, the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar.
First released: Monday 14th February 2011
DVD- Distributor: Optimum Home Entertainment
- Region: 2
- Discs: 1
- Catalogue: OPTD1959
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Dickie Henderson On Radio And Television
A new book and 75-minute DVD collection examining and celebrating the all-too-short life and career of star entertainer, comedian and early TV favourite Dickie Henderson, a ratings-winning ITV star through the 1950s, 60s and 70s before his premature death in 1985 at the age of only 62.
Includes two episodes of the domestic sitcom The Dickie Henderson Show by Jimmy Grafton and Jeremy Lloyd, and an unbroadcast sketch/chat show pilot, I Wish I'd Said That, written by Barry Cryer and co-starring Kenneth Williams.
First published: Saturday 5th August 2023
- Publisher: Kaleidoscope
- Pages: 72
- Catalogue: 9781900203869
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The Frankie Howerd Collection
Frankie Howerd, one of the 20th Century's best-loved comics, left behind a wide variety of work. Arguably his most well-known and loved role was that of Lurcio in Up Pompeii!, available on DVD here for the first time.
Contents are as follows:
Up Pompeii! Pilot episode (1969)
Up Pompeii! Series 1 (1970)
Up Pompeii! Series 2 (1970)
Further Up Pompeii! Special (1975)
Then Churchill Said To Me (1982)
Comedy Greats: Frankie Howerd
The Comedy Greats DVD contains sketches from An Evening With Frankie Howerd and Royal Variety Performances, as well as chat show appearances with the likes of Michael Parkinson and Terry Wogan.
First released: Monday 16th October 2006
DVD- Distributor: 2 Entertain
- Region: 2 & 4
- Discs: 5
- Minutes: 676
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: BBCDVD2119
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