I fondly recall seeing Ned Sherrin as part of a charity show in the late Eighties. Sherrin had the audience (including myself) in hysterics with a host of witty showbiz-related jokes and stories.

Ned Sherrin (who sadly died on the 1st October 2007) was a showbiz powerhouse. Writer, producer, director, and broadcaster were just a few of the many strings which formed his showbiz bow.

Back in the early Seventies the hero of my tale was heavily involved in the world of film. Sherrin produced several films, and many of these were made at the Shenley Road-based Elstree Studios. They included: Up Pompeii, Up the Chastity Belt and Up the Front. All of the aforementioned films starred the late, great Frankie Howerd.

I personally loved Howerd's Up... films! Their saucy humour combined with Howerd’s wonderful asides to camera made for wonderful and harmless comedy films. Films which, I am glad to say, still receive regular TV showings to this day.

Based on the BBC TV sitcom of the same name (although there was no "!" in the film title), Up Pompeii starred Frankie Howerd, who was wonderfully supported by the likes of (in alphabetical order) Bernard Bresslaw, Patrick Cargill, Michael Hordern, Roy Hudd, Bill Fraser, Barbara Murray, Lance Percival and Rita Webb.

Ned Sherrin once recalled that the much of the set for the film version of Up Pompeii was found by fellow producer on the film, Terry Glinwood. Glinwood discovered an array of appropriate Roman scenery just down the road from Elstree Studios at the abandoned MGM-Borehamwood Studios (now a housing estate). The scenery in question had apparently been left over from Charlton Heston's attempt to film Julius Caesar.

According to my research, Up Pompeii was filmed in the since-demolished Stage 2 at Elstree Studios.

When the film was first released it became a hit in the same year (1971) that the first of three On the Buses films also triumphed at the cinema box office. Up the Chastity Belt and up the Front then followed Pompeii in ’72 and ’73 respectively.

Sherrin may have sadly passed away in 2007, but his films, fortunately, remain with us. So if you are feeling a bit low one evening and you fancy several laughs of the saucy British comedy variety, then I highly-recommend that you pull up a chair and put on a DVD of one of the three Up... films that were made by Ned and his colleagues at Elstree Studios!