The series is set in ancient Pompeii (pre-eruption). Howerd played a slave, Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io); the other main characters were Lurcio's bumbling old master, Senator Ludicrus Sextus (initially Max Adrian and then Wallas Eaton), the senator's promiscuous wife Ammonia (Elizabeth Larner), his daughter Erotica (Georgina Moon) and his eternally virginal son Nausius (Kerry Gardner), along with the Cassandra-esque Senna the Soothsayer (Jeanne Mockford) and Plautus (Willie Rushton).