‘Young Hyacinth’ discusses who would be her ‘Young Richard’

Young Hyacinth premiered last week as part of the BBC’s Landmark Sitcom Season along with other ‘tip-of-the-hat’ specials including Goodnight Sweetheart, Porridge and Are You Being Served?. Having now had the opportunity to be able to screen all of them, I thought the Keeping Up Appearances prequel starring Kerry Howard worked exceptionally well. Even though the one-off was brilliantly written by […]

Read more

So that’s how Hyacinth could afford a slim line telephone with automatic redial….

In today’s overloaded commercial environment, no one gives it a second thought when they encounter celebrity spokespeople appearing in adverts for their favorite whatever. What doesn’t immediately come to mind are commercials that feature the character that an actor portrays. The only recent example that seems to follow this concept features the perfect pitchman, Modern Family‘s Phil Dunphy, […]

Read more

Classic ‘lost’ sitcoms become part of BBC tribute to comedy

There has been quite a bit of chatter the last several weeks about the one-off reboots of Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, Porridge and Goodnight Sweetheart as part of the forthcoming Landmark Sitcom Season on the BBC. While both the AYBS one-off, which takes the staff of Grace Brothers Department Store and places them in the late 80s, […]

Read more

London’s Grace Brothers Department Store set to re-open after 30+ years

While it’s been more than three decades since we last were able to walk into the retail ladies’ and gentlemen’s clothing department of London’s Grace Brothers department store, the doors appear ready to re-open in the not-too-distant future. The classic BBC comedy series, which ran from 1971 to 1985, is set for a re-boot as part […]

Read more

First glimpse of ‘Young Hyacinth’ set for September on BBC

If nothing else, Young Hyacinth, the forthcoming BBC prequel to the classic Roy Clarke series, Keeping Up Appearances, will give audiences a bit of insight as to how a 19-year-old Hyacinth from humble beginnings turned into an over-bearing, social-climbing snob with a penchant for slimline telephones with automatic redial, Royal Doulton china with hand-painted periwinkles, candlelight suppers. In […]

Read more

Gareth Gwenlan, British television producer/director, dies at 79.

Gareth Gwenlan, a name you may not be familiar with but whose work you have seen and enjoyed for decades on countless British situation comedies, has died at age 79. Gwenlan, who joined the BBC Comedy department in 1967 as a producer, helped create some of the world’s most beloved British sitcoms, notably The Fall And Rise […]

Read more

One Foot in the Grave’s Victor Meldrew set to return…sort of

Richard Wilson is set to revive his famous One Foot In The Grave character Victor Meldrew as part of a live show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this Summer. Wilson, who saw Victor more as a ‘normal man in a world full of idiots’, has confirmed that the character will return as part of his one-man show at […]

Read more

Cast is set for ‘Young Hyacinth’ as filming set to begin.

Much has been written recently (including here) about the numerous re-boots that the BBC is planning as part of their Landmark Sitcom Season which is designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of comedy on the channel since the original broadcast of Hancock’s Half Hour in 1956. While it is a bit hard to get excited about […]

Read more