• Bill Bailey returns to world of sitcom telly for wildlife park pilot

    Bill Bailey returns to world of sitcom telly for wildlife park pilot

    Bill Bailey, an extremely familiar face to loyal and long-time viewers of Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI, will be returning to the world of situation comedy in the not-too-distant future for a BBC pilot set in a wildlife park in the west of England. According to the British Comedy Guide, […]

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  • Parole denied as BBC grants more helpings of ‘Porridge’

    Parole denied as BBC grants more helpings of ‘Porridge’

    The BBC has commissioned a full 6-part series of Porridge, the situation comedy series which will see Kevin Bishop return as Nigel ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, grandson of Ronnie Barker’s iconic character Norman Stanley Fletcher. The original series, which aired on the BBC in the mid-70s, featured Barker as an inmate in the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. “Doing porridge” is British […]

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  • Terry Jones tearfully receives 2016 Bafta Award

    Terry Jones tearfully receives 2016 Bafta Award

    Just in case you are in need of a good, old fashioned cry at some point in the not-too-distant future, this is a video all fans of Monty Python, Terry Jones or comedy in general need to see. Earlier this week, Terry Jones received the award for outstanding contribution to television and film to a lengthy standing […]

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  • Terry Jones diagnosed with rare form of dementia

    Terry Jones diagnosed with rare form of dementia

    Whatever you do today, take a moment and think a good thought for Terry Jones. The former ‘original Python’ member has been diagnosed with a rare primary progressive aphasia, which affects his ability to communicate. According to the National Aphasia Association primary progressive aphasia is a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired. Sadly, […]

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  • Did the German version of Fawlty Towers ever ‘mention the war’?

    Did the German version of Fawlty Towers ever ‘mention the war’?

    As we celebrated the 41st anniversary this past week of Fawlty Towers, I thought it would fun to take a look back at how the greatest situation comedy of all-time made the leap to German broadcaster RTL. The first ever non-English adaptation of the John Cleese/Connie Booth bit of brilliance occurred in 2001 with a pilot set […]

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  • At 41, ‘Fawlty Towers’ is still the greatest sitcom of all-time

    At 41, ‘Fawlty Towers’ is still the greatest sitcom of all-time

    September 19, 1975 — a day that will live on in history as the day one of the most brilliant situation comedies of all-time debuted on the BBC. Born out of a seemingly uneventful trip to the Torquay Gleneagles Hotel by the original members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers is comedy greatness that has not seen its […]

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  • Closed temporarily, ‘Still Open All Hours’ set to re-open just in time for Christmas

    Closed temporarily, ‘Still Open All Hours’ set to re-open just in time for Christmas

    Still Open All Hours, the sequel to the iconic BBC sitcom Open All Hours, which originally ran from 1973 to 1985, will return later this year for a Christmas special one-off followed by a third series with a targeted transmission date of January 2017. Starring original OAH cast members, David Jason, Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole and Maggie Ollerenshaw, Still Open All Hours is written by […]

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  • BBC’s ‘Lost Sitcom Season’ yields ‘Hancocks Half Hour’ gem

    BBC’s ‘Lost Sitcom Season’ yields ‘Hancocks Half Hour’ gem

    It’s fitting that the series which originally laid the groundwork for the current 60th celebration of the BBC sitcom,  turned out to be a gem of a find in a lost Hancock’s Half Hour script. It was 1956 when one of the most popular shows in the UK made the unheard of scary leap from radio to television, […]

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