25-08-2021, 01:43 PM
Robertclark125 post_id=36037 time= user_id=1163 Wrote:Up Pompeii moved channel. Made in two series, in 1969 and 1970, for BBC1, they were later joined by a 1971 feature film, then an Easter Monday special, Further up Pompeii, in 1975. In 1991, LWT made a one off edition, also called Further up Pompeii. The plan was for it to be made as semi regular one offs, like Mr Bean. Sadly Frankie Howard died in 1992, and there were no further episodes.
In fact, the move was mentioned in probably the most memorable bit of the episode, as the show wasn't well received. Howard said "We are no BC, we are not BBC".
Frankie Howerd had a very strange career, it was a regular series of comebacks where he was either hugely popular or a completely washed-up old hasbeen. Happily it was the former when he died, and that was in part thanks to a repeat run of Up Pompeii on the Beeb earlier in 1991, the first one for a while and certainly the first time I'd ever seen it. And seemingly that was enough to convince LWT to do a revival, even though they'd never had anything to do with it before that, and Howerd aside it had a completely different cast, writers and production team. Seemed such a pointless endeavour.
sjames post_id=34187 time= user_id=1376 Wrote:I don't remember that, are you sure? It was around 1998 it ended on the BBC.
Well, it's true that Disney Time was a familiar fixture on the Beeb for many years - there were four shows a year, at Christmas, Easter and the May and August Bank Holidays - and as you can see on Genome the last one of its continuous run was in May 1998, when it was presented by Rio Ferdinand of all people. I always found it a bit odd on the Beeb because pretty much all other Disney was on ITV*, including the Disney Club of course, but it carried on for many years. On Christmas Day 1998, there was a Disney Time on ITV, but that was the only time I remember ITV ever doing it, and given it was just some clips of Disney films strung together, it was hardly much of a format.
* Back in the eighties and nineties, ITV had Disney and imperial phase Warner Bros, while the Beeb had MGM so the likes of Tom and Jerry, while they also had pre-1950 Warner Bros cartoons which were owned by a different company. Of course, these days it's the Beeb who have the stronger links with Disney.