On stage, he played the part of Lycus in the 1963 London production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Frankie Howerd and appeared in the smaller role of Crassus in the 1966 film version.

Howerd had recently played the similar role of the slave Pseudolus in the original London stage run of the musical, and there were parallels between some other characters.

"), and had a brief epilogue in which Howerd played a modern-day museum guide showing the petrified remains of the Pompeiian characters.

It was produced by Ned Sherrin and retained only Frankie Howerd from the cast of the original series ( Ludicrus, for example, was played by Michael Hordern in the film adaptation, Erotica by Madeline Smith and Nausius by Royce Mills ).

After this, Douglas became known to British television audiences in the 1970s by appearing in The Howerd Confessions, The Inheritors, Space: 1999 and Return of the Saint, and appeared in the films The People That Time Forgot ( for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award ), and the controversial and rarely seen film The Brute, in which she played an abused wife.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film was performed by Mean Mr. Mustard ( played by Frankie Howerd ) and his evil robot companions, the Computerettes.

Actors who have played Lord Fancourt Babberley in the West End include Richard Goolden, Leslie Philips, John Mills, Frankie Howerd, Tom Courtenay, and Griff Rhys Jones.

The storyline concerned Uncle Bob, played by Howerd, who would give all his money when he died to one branch of his family.

( Howerd went on to star in Up Pompeii !, a 1969 British television comedy series set in ancient Pompeii, as the slave Lurcio, whose character was based on Pseudolus.

Howerd addressed the audience using asides that the other characters couldn't hear ( a device that harks back to classical theatre ), often commenting on the script, sometimes complaining that everyone else got the good lines.

Hatch co-devised the satirical show Week Ending and produced other comedy radio shows such as Just a Minute, Hello, Cheeky !, The Burkiss Way, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, The Frankie Howerd Show ( 1974 ), and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

The 1963 production and its 1986 revival were staged at the Strand Theatre and the Piccadilly Theatre respectively, and featured Frankie Howerd starring as Pseudolus, Kenneth Connor as Hysterium, ' Monsewer ' Eddie Gray as Senex, Jon Pertwee as Marcus Lycus and Leon Greene as Miles Gloriosus.

News of the two deaths broke almost simultaneously and some newspapers ran an obituary of Howerd in which Hill was quoted as regretting Howerd's passing, saying " We were great, great friends ".

Several new actors were brought in, including Frankie Howerd as Alfred ( Alphonse ) Askett, Reg Varney as Gilbert, Dora Bryan as headmistress Amber Spottiswood, and Stratford Johns as the Voice.

He transformed something you'd just written-what you hoped was in a Frankie Howerd idiom-but when you heard him do it, my God, it was something else ;-it was gossiping over the garden wall, the apparent waffle-he was like a tightrope walker, you thought he's going to fall off in a minute, you thought, ' Come on, Frank ', we're waiting for a laugh, and then, suddenly, Bang.

Bill Cotton in an interview with author Graham McCann on 6 June 2000 said that the then director of BBC Comedy, Michael Mills, prompted by the plays of Plautus, came up with the idea for the show for Frankie Howerd.

It was on television that Mullard made a name for himself, first as a straight man for Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill, then in The Arthur Askey Show.

After six years without a regular television show in the United Kingdom ( though he had hosted a one-off UK version of The Gong Show for Channel 4, which was critically panned and was not commissioned for a full series ), Howerd returned to TV screens in 1987 in the Channel 4 show Superfrank !, scripted by Miles Tredinnick and Vince Powell.

( not to be confused with the 1991 ITV special Further Up Pompeii ), the already-released Comedy Greats: Frankie Howerd DVD, and another Howerd series along a similar vein, Then Churchill Said To Me.

His credits in this period include The Howerd Crowd ( 1952 ), Frankie Howerd's Korean Party, Nuts in May and The Frankie Howerd Show, as well as The Big Man ( 1954 ) starring Fred Emney and Edwin Styles.

( 1961 ), Frankie Howerd at The Establishment ( 1963 ), a series of recordings with Paddy Roberts ( best known for " The Ballad of Bethnal Green "), numerous " original cast " and soundtrack albums including Oh!

But Also, appeared in a Ray Galton-Alan Simpson revue in London's West End — Way Out In Piccadilly — alongside Frankie Howerd, made notable appearances on The Eamonn Andrews Show, and starred in her own television special ( the first of its kind to be filmed in colour ), Cilla at the Savoy.

After releasing family drama Old Mac and a potboiler mystery called Out of the Shadow in 1961, Winner brushed with Gilbert and Sullivan, writing the screenplay and directing a version of The Mikado entitled The Cool Mikado ( 1962 ), starring Frankie Howerd which was produced by Harold Baim.

* Frankie Howerd ( born Howard ) ( 1917 – 1992 ), English comedian

Acts who appeared included: Gloria Gaynor, George Roper, Ken Dodd, Duncan Norvelle, Black Lace, Bernie Winters, Stutz Bear Cats, Kit and the Widow, Wall Street Crash, Kiki Dee, Diane Solomon, Michael Ball, ' Nasty Nigel ' Lythgoe, Martin " The Beast " Francis, Tom Pepper, Fay Presto, Pete Price, Manhattan Transfer, Shane Richie, The Flaming Hamsters, Stan Boardman, Fascinating Aida, Showaddywaddy, Kajagoogoo, Frankie Howerd, Colm Wilkinson, Wilfrid Brambell from Steptoe and Son, Sinitta, Five Star, Indigo Lady, Cheryl Baker, Phil Cornwell, Jaki Graham, Nana Mouskouri, The Chuckle Brothers, Brian Conley, Roy Walker, Wayne Sleep, Andrew O ' Connor, Gareth Hunt, Peter Beckett, Syd Lawrence ( with his orchestra ), Frankie Vaughan, Jessica Martin, George Roper, Caroline Cossey, The Foxes, Mud, Chris Emmett, Keith Harris and Orville, Mick Miller, Diane Solomon, Mark Heap ( The Two Marks ) and Vince Hill.

Connor starred in the revue One Over the Eight ( 1962 ), at the Duke of York's Theatre, the original London West End production with Frankie Howerd of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum ( 1963 ), as Hysterium – and directed the show when it went on tour – The Four Musketeers ( 1967 ), with Harry Secombe at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, playing King Louis XIII, and the revue Carry On London ( 1973 ) at the Victoria Palace.

Percival returned to film work in the Frankie Howerd vehicles Up Pompeii ( 1971 ) and Up the Chastity Belt ( 1971 ), sustaining a film career until 1978.

with Frankie Howerd ( 1969 ), Fagin in the 1962 dramatisation of Oliver Twist, and parts in The Baron, Adam Adamant Lives!

Howerd was born the son of a soldier, Francis Alfred William ( 1887 – 1935 ) and Edith Florence Howard ( née Morrison, 1888 – 1962 ) at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 ( not 1922 as he later claimed ).

After the war, but still with the BBC, whilst in Egypt and recording a series of shows by Frankie Howerd, the star was taken ill at the last minute and Unwin was pushed onto the stage and told to " do a turn ".

More comedies followed, including Trouble in Store ( 1953 ) with Norman Wisdom, The Runaway Bus ( 1954 ) with Frankie Howerd and An Alligator Named Daisy ( 1955 ) with Donald Sinden and Diana Dors.

Howerd was a regular feature in the 1950s version of the comic Film Fun but when he began experimenting with different formats and contexts, including stage farces, Shakespearean comedy roles, and television sitcoms, he began to fall out of fashion.

In 1971 Howerd recorded, with June Whitfield, a comedy version of the song " Je t ' aime ", made famous by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, in which she featured as " Mavis " alongside Howerd's " Frank ", and a third unexplained sleeping partner named " Arthur ".

In the last years of his career, Howerd developed a following with student audiences and performed a one-man show at universities and in small theatrical venues.

Howerd often worked with Sunny Rogers who was his accompanying pianist from 1960 onwards.

Heymer was with Howerd for more than thirty years as lighting operator, manager and lover, until Howerd died.

Heymer would often drop Howerd off on Friday at his psychiatrist, who would ply him with LSD over the weekend.

Howerd was central to most of the gags and he started each episode with a prologue — a " to camera " piece that was seldom concluded and rarely had anything to do with the episode's plot.

In 1971 Whitfield recorded, with Frankie Howerd, a comedy version of the song " Je t ' aime, originally made famous by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, in which she featured as " Mavis ".

She starred with Frankie Howerd and Dennis Price in her only film role as Ruby, in the 1956 farce, A Touch of the Sun.

In February 2001, BBC Online incorporated Douglas Adams ' previously independent h2g2 project into its group of web sites, and eventually replaced all its existing message boards, which used an archaic system called Howerd, with the DNA software derived from that project.