Chelmsford 123
Chelmsford 123 is a British television situation comedy produced for Channel 4 by Hat Trick Productions. It originally ran for two series, of six and seven episodes respectively, between 9 March 1988 and 20 February 1990.
The series is set in the British town of Chelmsford in the year AD 123 and concerned the power struggle between Roman governor Aulus Paulinus and the British chieftain, Badvoc. Britain is a miserable place, cold and wet – just the place to exile Aulus for accidentally insulting the Emperor's horse, but it also give him something useful to do. Aulus is a rather delicate Roman and is usually outwitted by the scheming Badvoc, who has not had a haircut for twenty-five years. There are also appearances by many of the other regular "Hat Trick" actors, previously seen in shows such as Who Dares Wins.
Both series are available to stream on Channel 4, and have been shown in the UK on Rewind TV.
Series 1 and 2 were released on DVD by Acorn Media UK on 15 September 2011.
Principal cast
- Rory McGrath as Badvoc, A British chieftain
- Jimmy Mulville as Aulus Paulinus, the Roman Governor of Britain
- Philip Pope as Grasientus, Aulus' Brother in-law.
- Howard Lew Lewis as Blag
- Neil Pearson as Mungo
- Erika Hoffman as Gargamadua, Badvoc's girlfriend
- Robert Austin as Functio
- Geoffrey McGivern as Wolfbane
- Geoffrey Whitehead as Viatorus, engineer, bringer of rain, sculptor
- Andy Hamilton as Taranis, British "warrior" .
- Chris Langham as The Gate Guard and later Chief Of Security
- Bill Wallis as Emperor Hadrian.