Me (1982), both starring Howerd. The later series was shelved due to the outbreak of the Falklands War and – thought politically insensitive – the series was aired after Howerd's death in 1993. A pilot episode for a US version of Up Pompeii for ABC, initially called The Pompeii Way but later renamed Up the toga, still starring Frankie Howerd and co-starring Foster Brooks, was recorded in 1971, but it did not proceed to a full series and was never shown. Publicity shots on Getty Images show that it involved the "Olympia Theatre Company", suggesting it may have been based on episode 5 of series 1 ("The actors"). The existence of this pilot was undocumented for a long time, until the publicity photographs were noticed online. For a long time, it was unclear if the program still existed, until a 16mm film copy was sold on eBay late 2022. The 1991 special Further up Pompeii (without exclamation mark), made twenty years after the series had ended and by different writers, could have served as a pilot episode for a revival of the series; however Frankie's death prevented that. Stage play In 1988, Howerd asked one of his writers, Miles Tredinnick, to work on an updated stage version of Up Pompeii! for a proposed national UK tour, but the play was shelved when Howerd was offered a chance by Larry Gelbart to reprise his role as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End. The play was eventually revised and updated and had its premiere in Chesterfield in January 2011 and then embarked on a UK tour. Produced and directed by Bruce James, it starred Damian Williams, host of Sky One's Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old?, as Lurcio the slave. An acting edition of the play was published by Josef Weinberger Ltd in 2012. Audio revival In 2019, it was announced that British production company Spiteful Puppet would celebrate the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of the "Comedy Playhouse" pilot by releasing an audio adaptation based on the stage play by Miles Tredinnick. The script was adapted by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, Daniel McGachey and Iain McLaughlin, with Eaton-Jones serving as producer and director of the live recording sessions at London's Shaw Theatre on 12 October 2019. The two staged performances starred Madeline Smith as Ammonia, Frazer Hines