What is Up Pompeii? Links Merchandise Desktop Theme Frames No Frames

Welcome to a web site dedicated to providing original quality Desktop Themes for you to download and enjoy. With over 30 fun TV and soccer desktop themes to choose from be sure you visit the rest of the website before leaving - click on Frames or No Frames to access the main menu. This then is my tribute to the hit BBC comedy series of the 70's - Up Pompeii.

Up Pompeii was a farcical comedy set in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and featured Frankie Howerd (Tiiter ye not Misses) as the hapless slave Lucio to the household of philandering senator Ludicrus Sextus (Max Adrian/Wallis Eaton/Mark Digham) and his wife Ammonia played by Elizabeth Larner. The double entendres in this TV orgy of bad taste, with the household slave, Lurcio playing middle aged Cupid to everyone from Sextus's nymphomanical daughter Erotica (Georgina Moon) to his effete, lovelorn son Nauseous (Kerry Gardner), were considered daring at the time. Legend has it that the puns even caused the veteran ex-music hall star to "blink". In matchmaking , cynical Lurcio commentated on the bawdiness around him in asides to the camera and attempted to deliver "the Prologue". These attempts were frequently interrupted by the mad soothsayer Senna (Jeanne Mockford), persistent in prophesying the town's doom.

Up Pompeii appeared on 17 Sep 1969 as an episode in the series that launched a 1000 comedy series, The Comedy Playhouse. The first 6-part series appeared on BBC 1 between March and May in 1970 closely followed by series two between September-October 1970. The success of the show prompted a full length feature film produced by EMI in 1971. Frankie Howerd moved on to Whoops Bagdad (1973 6x30min episodes on BBC1) in which he attempted to recreate the success of the original show. In Whoops Bagdad Howerd plays an Arabian servant Ali Oopla - which merely changed the setting but not the jokes. Lurcio and Up Pompeii returned briefly on Easter Monday in 1975 when a one-off special, Further Up Pompeii was screened. As the 70's progressed, the show became tagged as sexist, although the nudge-nudge, seaside postcard-like humour actually poked fun at sex, rather than treating woman as sex objects. Howerd struggled with the various formats but was never able to recreate the crispness of the original shows.

In the late 80's and early 90's Howerd (and thus Up Pompeii) were re-discovered by a new generation of TV watchers and he achieved a revered status in youth circles. In response, London Weekend Television commissioned in 1991 an (unsuccessful) pilot for a new version of the show, Up Pompeii Misses. Frankie Howerd died in 1992 and with him any opportunity to re-visit Pompeii. His Up Pompeii catchphrases live on (nay, nay and thrice nay) as do the videos of the two early series. Dusted off and re-screened in the 90's by UK satellite TV station UK Gold, the programmes are timeless and just as funny. It is difficult in these enlightened days to understand what all the fuss was about! Long live British humour, double entendres and re-runs of Up Pompeii.

Links to other Up Pompeii web sites!

Here are a few links to other Up Pompeii web sites I have found on the net. If you find a worthy link please drop me a line so that I can add it to this links list for subsequent visitors to explore.

Read Phil's Up Pompeii fact sheet.

Find about the movie Up Pompeii from e-online.

Up Pompeii Videos

The Up Pompeii Desktop Theme is based on BBC TV comedy series from the 70's. The Theme features themed start-up and shutdown screens, hi-colour (24-bit) desktop wallpaper, animated cursor set and new desktop icons. Also included are new event sounds taken from Up Pompeii TV episodes. As if that was not enough, we have included a full feature screensaver made using Screen Saver Deluxe. Instructions are provided in the Readme file and the whole theme is available in a convenient zip file to download.

If you don't have a copy of Microsoft Plus! help is at hand in the form of Desktop Themes, a shareware desktop theme manager published by Jonathan Potter at Left Side Software. Click on to get your copy.

The following thumbnails will give you an idea of the screens used in this theme.

Click here to download the Up Pompeii Desktop Theme Version 1.0 (1.90Mb)

Problems downloading from ?

You can now use GetRight.Com's downloading Utility GetRight for Java to download this desktop theme. Click on the GetRight Download button that follows to download the Up Pompeii Desktop Theme using GetRight for Java instead of your browsers usual download tool. Check out my Download Problems page to find out how to use this facility and for more great tips on how you can improve your downloads using Net Vampire.

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