Here's another installment of our look at great British TV shows that are unfairly under represented on the Web.This week we'll follow a bit of a theme with the hysterical historical comedies Up Pompeii and Chelmsford 123, and the sleuth with a tonsure Cadael.
In this day of instant web gratification, when half a dozen unofficial sites pop up overnight for each and every piece of dreck put out by UPN and the WB, where dozens of sites are dedicated to Japanese animation that the site authors have hardly seen there are a surprisingly large number of worthy UKTV shows that might as well not exist as far as the Net is concerned. Hopefully this article will jog a few memories and inspire a few webmasters to do these series justice on the web. Also, if anyone knows of sites dedicated to any of these shows that I haven't found, please drop me a line at biggle@bigglethwaite.com so I can add them to our link database.
When you think historic britcom these days you think Blackadder, but it wasn't always so. Years before Rowan Atkinson's brilliant portrayals of the Blackadder boys veteran gagmeister Frankie Howerd (That was the Week That Was, Then Churchill Said to Me, various Carry On films) was having a funny thing happen on the way to the forum in the Roman Times comedy Up Pompeii. Howerd, beloved master of the double entandre was already legendary for his work on stage, screen and radio when he took up the role of Lurcio in the BBC comedy set in Ancient Rome. Howerd had already appeared in the London production of Stephen Sondheim's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" so he had the whole Roman slapstick thing down, and even if some of Up Pompeii's jokes were as old and decrepit as Roman ruins, you couldn't help but love Howerd's slightly lecherous and always conniving slave Lurcio.
Meanwhile. across the continent, on a small island inhabited by various constantly-warring barbarian tribes, Caesar had instilled a bit of Roman order and given Jimmy Mulville (Who Dares Wins,WLiiA,GBH) and Rory McGrath (HIGNFY,Who Dares Wins, They Think It's All Over) the idea for Chelmsford 123, an unfairly under-rated view of Roman Britain. Starring Mulville as Roman Governor Aulus Paulinus and McGrath as Badvoc, Briton Chieftain, Chelmsford 123 sports a number of classic and near classic episodes and a stellar supporting cast that includes Neil Pearson (Drop the Dead Donkey, Behind the Lines, Rhodes) and Howard Lew Lewis (Maid Marion, Noel's House Party). Had the Blackadder crew gone back to this time
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