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[Klaus]

The BBC's Sitcom Season starts next week with one-off remakes of old classics including Porridge and Are You Being Served?, a number of new sitcoms, recreations of episodes of classic sitcoms that have been lost and special programmes looking at sitcoms in general. Here is the list of all the programmes that are to be broadcast:

Are You Being Served - Sunday 28 August, 9pm BBC One

It's 1988 and Young Mr Grace is determined to drag Grace Brothers into, well 1988, but he has a problem on his hands. Mr Humphries, Captain Peacock, Mr Rumbold and Mrs Slocombe all seem to be stuck in another era. A new member of staff, Mr Conway, joins the team - but will he help shake things up or will he just put a pussy among the pigeons?

Porridge - Sunday 28 August, 9.30pm BBC One

Imprisoned for a series of cyber-crimes, Fletch finds himself beholden to prison bad boy Richie Weeks and forced to use his hacking skills to get Weeks off the hook. The problem being that wily Officer Meekie has got his beady eye on Fletch - he knows a wrongun when he sees one.

Goodnight Sweetheart - Friday 2 September, 9pm BBC One

17 years have gone by and it’s 1962 - the year Gary was in fact born. Is it possible he could actually witness the event? Well, obviously not, according to the elementary rules of time travel: it might cause some very startling consequences such as being catapulted ahead into 2016 - a world he knows nothing about.

Young Hyacinth - Friday 2 September, 9.30pm BBC One

Kerry Howard (Him & Her) plays Hyacinth in a brand new one-off special called Young Hyacinth, a prequel to the popular 1990s classic sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, the BBC’s most popular TV export around the world. Written by the original creator Roy Clarke, Young Hyacinth will tell the story of Hyacinth’s early adulthood.

Pointless Celebrities - Sitcom Special - Saturday 27 August, 7.10pm BBC One

The celebrity line-up includes Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) and Adil Ray (Citizen Khan), as well as Pauline McLynn (Father Ted) who joins with Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered). Jean Ferguson (Last of the Summer Wine) teams with Tina Malone (Shameless), and also stepping up to the Pointless Celebrities podium are Richard Gibson (Allo Allo) and Vicki Michelle.

We Love Sitcom - Friday 9 September, 9pm BBC One

We Love Sitcom is a light-hearted panel quiz show that celebrates everything we love about British sitcom. Hosted by Ben Miller, this part comedy quiz and part nostalgia trip sees an all-star line-up go head to head to test their knowledge of British sitcoms.

The Coopers Vs The Rest - Monday 29 August, 10pm BBC Two

Along with her husband Toby (Paterson Joseph, Peep Show, Green Wing) she now divides just about enough money and nowhere near enough time between their three adopted children Frankie (Erin Kellyman), Alisha (India Brown) and Charlie (Joseph West). Tess tries to improve Charlie’s popularity by gate-crashing his classmate’s eighth birthday party, while back at home Toby has to deal with Alisha’s sudden interest in religion.

Home From Home - Tuesday 30 August, 10pm BBC Two

Their ‘traditional' lodge at Lake View Holiday Park means everything to them, the years of scrimping and saving all now feel worth it. That is until they wake up the next morning to discover their neighbours, the Dillons: Robert (Adam James - Doctor Foster) and Penny (Emilia Fox - Silent Witness). The Dillons are effortlessly superior in every way. Fiona enjoys the chance to make friends with her neighbours at a 'getting-to-know-you' barbecue, but Neil is less convinced. When night falls and the sangria flows the atmosphere goes from promising to catastrophic as Neil commits the ultimate faux pas.

Our Ex Wife - Thursday 1 September, 10pm BBC Two

Jack has finally found real happiness with fiancée Sara (Melanie Lynskey - Togetherness, Two And A Half Men), but his unhinged ex-wife and mother of his kids, Hillary (Victoria Hamilton - Doctor Foster, The Crown) is determined to destroy it. Whilst Jack wants Hillary out of their lives, Sara has made it her personal crusade to build a relationship with her for the sake of children Ava (Holly Earl) and Max (Archie Lyndhurst).

We The Jury - Monday 5 September, 10pm BBC Two

We The Jury is a comedy about jury duty, something William has dreamt of doing his whole life. He’s always known he was destined to be a juror but he never imagined that when the day finally came he’d land the mother of all jury gigs - an actual murder trial. The jury are a mismatched collection of enthusiastic fools, inconsiderate bullies and self-obsessed weirdos, constantly getting distracted from the case. Add in a demob-happy judge in her final trial and this has all the ingredients of a disaster.

Motherland

Motherland is a show all about navigating the trials and traumas of middle-class motherhood, looking at the competitive and unromantic sides of parenting - not the cute and acceptable public face of motherhood.We meet the 'Alpha Mums' headed by Amanda (Lucy Punch - The Wedding Video) who is very much the Queen Bee: everything in her life is organised, clean and sparkly - even the iamspamspamamicork board is a statement of success. At the other end of the spectrum we meet Liz (Diane Morgan - Cunk On Shakespeare) who's totally chaotic and feels the kids should enjoy free expression. Somewhere in the middle is Julia (Anna Maxwell-Martin - Reg), who, when she forgets it’s the school holidays, realises her organisational skills are nowhere near the level of the ‘Alpha Mums’.

Jimmy Carr And The Science Of Laughter: A Horizon Special - Sunday 11 September, 9pm BBC Two

With the help of leading scientists along with Jimmy’s own theories and ideas, together they will try and find answers to what laughter actually is, why we love doing it so much and why we associate laughter with being amused.

Comedy Feeds 2016 - BBC Three

Now on their fourth run, BBC Three’s Comedy Feeds continue to develop the next generation of British on and off-screen comedy talent.
This year they will include:

A Brief History of Tim, written by and starring Tim Renkow
Fail, featuring Will Merrick
Limbo, written by Lucien Young and Joe Parham
Man Like Mobeen, written by Guz Khan and Andy Milligan
Pumped, written by Stewart Thomson
The JPD3 Show, from the creators and stars of Mandem On The Wall

Lost Sitcoms - Hancock’s Half Hour - Thursday 8 September, 9pm BBC Four

On BBC Four, there are recreations of classic Lost Sitcoms (Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe and Son and Till Death Us Do Part). The scripts for these shows still exist but the original recordings have vanished from the archives. The episode, The New Neighbour, is about Tony Hancock’s new neighbour who has a very, very suspicious night-time routine. Kevin McNally plays the role of Tony Hancock with Robin Sebastian playing the role of Kenneth Williams. Other cast includes Jon Culshaw (Dead Ringers) playing Sid James; Katy Wix (Anna & Katy) playing Hattie Jacques and Kevin Eldon (Brass Eye) playing John Vere.

Lost Sitcoms - Steptoe And Son - Wednesday 14 September, 9pm BBC Four

Jeff Rawle (Drop The Dead Donkey) and Ed Coleman (Pride) re-create one of the most successful double acts in the history of British television playing Albert Steptoe and his son, Harold respectively. The episode, A Winter’s Tale, sees Harold desperate to go on a skiing holiday - but he doesn’t want Albert there, under any circumstances.

Lost Sitcoms - Till Death Us Do Part - Thursday 1 September, 9pm

[i]Till Death Us Do Part, written by Johnny Speight, sees Simon Day (Brian Pern, The Fast Show) reprise the role of Alf Garnett in the episode, A Woman’s Place Is In The Home. Alf arrives home to find himself in an empty house with a burnt supper, and sets about putting things right using his local telephone box. Other cast includes Lizzie Roper (Boy Meets Girl) playing Else; Sydney Rae White (Uncle) playing Rita and Carl Au (Waterloo Road) playing Mike.

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ORIGINAL POST:



Following the success of 'Still Open All Hours', the BBC appears to have looked at another classic Ronnie Barker sitcom and is hoping to bring an updated version back to our screens.

​Fletch is heading back behind bars for a revival of classic BBC comedy Porridge.

The Sunday Times is reporting that the series will be brought back with a BBC pilot centred around Norman Fletcher's (Ronnie Barker) grandson, who will be serving time for computer hacking.

Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have said that the BBC has commissioned them to write a single episode, which La Frenais hopes will be turned into a series.

"We were asked by the BBC to do a revival and decided to set it right up to date. It will be set in a modern prison while Slade was of course Victorian," explained La Frenais, who added that Norman's grandson would also be called Fletch and has "attitude".

The original series of Porridge ran between 1974 and 1977 and also starred the late Richard Beckinsale as Fletch's naive cellmate Lennie Godber and Fulton Mackay as prison officer Mr. Mackay.