Great Proofing Errors through the Ages

[desperance]

Oh look, '70s TV geekery. Worse, English '70s TV geekery. But I've just watched a rerun of the first-ever episode of Up Pompeii, and I do just love this.

The episode is based around the Miss Vestal Virgin competition, AD 72 (okay, look, it's British '70s humour, okay? Never mind that, just watch the numbers). The characters say so, and it's written on the posters advertising the event. Then, at the event, there's this big banner at the back, which reads 'Miss Vestal Virgin, AD 79'. And no, it's not a particularly curly 2, it's definitely a 9. And at some point during filming, someone must have noticed. But rather than correct it, reshoot it, remake the props, they just ignored it - only the next time we visit the event, the end of the banner has been judiciously wrapped a couple of times around its pole, so that the 9 has completely disappeared. Oh, how good is that...?

Comments

[julesjones]

Nice lateral thinking by someone...

I'm not old enough to have watched Up Pompeii on its original run, but I caught the repeat run about ten years ago. Every so often I check amazon.co.uk in the hope that it will have finally made it to the DVD catalogue. Never has the fourth wall been so gloriously kicked to pieces. :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm not old enough to have watched Up Pompeii on its original run

Well, there's no need to brag...

But you are absolutely right about the fourth-wall factor. 'Specially when Howerd loses his lines, and the asides to the audience are all about how much there is to learn, and so on - you can't say he drops out of character, because that is the character, but...

Sometimes I think it's Terribly Terribly Clever, in a way that no one has quite understood yet. Then I think, nah, it's just '70s comedy built around the last great variety star. Then I try to stop thinking.

Is it really not on DVD? I'm astonished. Maybe a full rerun on BBC4 (all this week and next, I think - partnered with I Claudius, which is also entirely fabulous and entirely '70s) will herald its release.

[julesjones]

Not old enough as in "too young at the time to be allowed to watch smut", not as in "not born then", if that makes you feel any better.

I think it's basically someone being clever by giving the last great variety show the perfect vehicle to display his enormous... talent to a tv audience. I still can't see any evidence of it being out on DVD, but I, Claudius is already on my shopping list. I do remember watching at least a couple of episodes of that on its first run, but I suspect that my parents didn't actually realise what I was watching.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I would imagine not - anyone seeking to protect their precious from the adolescent English seaside-postcard level of smut that runs through Up Pompeii would surely have hurled themselves bodily between their darling and the TV screen sooner than let them see what actually goes on in I, Clavdivs. Snortle. I was, what, seventeen, just escaped from boarding school and finally had access to a TV; any part of that - or all parts working together - might be why it sank so deep into my creative/cultural matrix. I only saw it once, that thirty years ago, but watching it last night I was astonished how much I remembered, and how potent it still was. Of course, it might just be really good TV, but I'm fairly sure that my own receptivity was a major contributing factor. I wasn't really planning to watch it this time round, on the grounds that I can't conceivably schedule twelve successive nights of being in - but one sniff last night, and I think I'm hooked again.

[julesjones]

Hrm. I note that the DVD set is only 27 quid at amazon.co.uk this week - and with boxed sets, the VAT refund usually covers the extra postage to ship it to the US. Just how annoyed _am_ I with Amazon over the ebook format fiasco, I ask myself?

When cable finally came down my street about ten years ago (when I was still in the UK), one of the things that induced me to sign up was the fact that UK Gold was about to start a repeat run of I, Claudius. And yes, after twenty years I was astonished at how much I remembered even though I was eleven (I think) when I first saw it, and at how potent it still was.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

My jury is still out about Up Pompeii, which was basically a rip off of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Howerd's Lurcio was pretty much a rip off of Phil Silvers' stage character. On the other hand, maybe it is like comparing Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock to Nathan Lane's. They are the same, but different. Disengage critical brain and put your laughing tackle in gear.

The jury went home a long, long time ago about I, Claudius. Every so often the BBC puts on a drama that is seminal (I am old enough to remember seeing Talking to a Stranger, Robin Redbreast and Home on the Range not to mention Culloden, War Games and Scum) Claudius is one of those. The trouble is, I don't think she's got the balls to do it now. Remember the reaction to Ian Kennedy Martin's 'black flowers'?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

My jury is still out about Up Pompeii, which was basically a rip off of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Howerd's Lurcio was pretty much a rip off of Phil Silvers' stage character. On the other hand, maybe it is like comparing Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock to Nathan Lane's. They are the same, but different. Disengage critical brain and put your laughing tackle in gear.

I think that's exactly right - and adding, of course, that Howerd recreated the Zero Mostel parts (Prologus/Pseudolus) in the original London production of "...Forum", so was perhaps more entitled than anyone else to carry it forward into a spin-off UK TV production.

And I do agree with you about Claudius too, but I did need to see it again to be sure. Vivid memories from adolescence are no true guarantee of quality.

Wasn't 'Scum' banned originally from the TV? I remember seeing it as a film release, in '79 or '80, but I thought it went to the movies because it wasn't allowed on TV.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

'Scum' was, of course, banned before transmission, unlike War Games and Culloden (not exactly dramas but very 'dramatic') which were only banned after transmission, once the horses were well and truly scared.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure about BBC not being daring anymore. I watch Spooks, and it's damn good, fairly topical and not kowtowing much to government policy. A far cry from the pablum that passes for dramatic telly over here in France. They even shot a French remake of The Office and, my, my, my... they should have shot the poor thing dead, for sheer mercy.

I'll grant that Spooks is not I, Claudius, but it's still a fine production.

Another thing I'd like to see on DVD is that biography of Shakespeare with Tim Curry as the Bard (and as I remember, he was quite brilliant). I missed the last episode and though I can more or less imagine what happens, I've wanted to catch up ever since. But no VHS and no DVD. - sigh -

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Crumbs, forgot to log in. So I should add here the previous message on Spooks and Shakespeare (was that series called "Will", or am I misremembering?) is from me. Ò_____ó

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It was called 'Will Shakespeare', and has at some time been available on video, as witness this (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/2587/timbio.html)...

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Thanks. In the States, it seems. A couple of no-frills DVD should take care of a new release. I'd really be curious to see it again. The recent DVD release of Andrew Birkin's The Lost Boys was another long-deferred pleasure.

[sovay]

But I've just watched a rerun of the first-ever episode of Up Pompeii, and I do just love this.

It's on television? I've been wanting to see that show for years; his version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is the one I imprinted on.