Up Pompeii! (1969)

The grandfather of the Roman sitcom. Frankie Howerd plays Lurcio, a slave in pre-eruption Pompeii, and every episode opens with him trying to deliver a prologue to the audience, only for it to be interrupted, usually by the doom-laden warnings of the prophetess Senna. Talbot Rothwell, who wrote for the Carry On films, scripted the first series, and it shows: the innuendo comes thick and fast, and Howerd keeps breaking the fourth wall with asides. Only two short series aired, in 1969 and 1970, so it is an easy evening's binge. Go in expecting music-hall smut, not satire, and the double entendres are period pieces in their own right.