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THE FRANKIE HOWERD COLLECTION

BBC DVD / 5 disc set / Region 4 / Released March 2008

Featuring Frankie Howerd, William Rushton, Georgina Moon, Michael Parkinson

One of the true legends of British comedy Frankie Howerd often found it hard to translate his amazing stage routines and presence into workable TV formats outside your standard variety special but this fanatastic box set, just released by BBC DVD brings together his two best loved shows, Up Pompeii and The Churchill Said To Me along with a best of his variety moments disc for the perfect sampling of his ouvre.

UP POMPEII (and Further Up Pompeii) is the show that Howerd will be most remembered for, heavily based on the stage comedy musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (which had featured Howerd in two roles) Up Pompeii sees Howerd playing a slave, Lurico, in Roman times. Lurcio works for senator Ludicrus and his wife Ammonia and the episodes revolve around very clever labyrinthine plots that see Lurcio having to cover up for most of the members of his family as they embark on affairs and the like. This set also includes the original 1969 Comedy Playhouse episode that served as a pilot as well as the 1975 45 minute special called Further Up Pompeii which was an Easter special re-uniting the cast as if only a week had gone by not five years. (incidentally there was a very lacklustre 19991 ITV revivial also called Further Up Pompeii which isn't included in this BBC collection).

THEN CHURCHILL SAID TO ME is a different kettle of fish altogether, made in 1982 but unscreened because the Falklands War had just broken out between the UK and Argentina and anything slightly war related was off limits. It finally found a home on UK satellite channel UK Gold where it proved to be, while not quite reaching the heights of Pompeiidom, an entertaining additon to the Howerd CV. It's 1941 and Frankie is Private Potts, working in the governments top secret underground headquarters. The staging and playing is very much Pompeii with the additional fun of a duel role for Howerd as he also played General Fearless Freddy Hollocks. Watch out too for a role for Dr Who alumni Nicholas Courtney playing to type as Colonel Robin WItherton.

Finally THE BEST OF FRANKIE HOWERD is a 65 minute compilation of the best bits from his career featuring everything from appearances on chat shows such as Parkinson, Wogan and Russell Harty to classic routines from the Royal Variety Performance to his own specials such as An Evening With Frankie Howerd.

So titter ye not because The Frankie Howerd Collection then is quite simply the last word when it comes to all things Howerdian.

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