Classic BBC sitcoms to be revived for comedy season

Alongside Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe And Son, a new version of the much-loved sitcom is to filmed, featuring a new cast, but based on an original script.

The one-off specials of the “lost sitcoms” - so called because the original episodes no longer exist as recordings - are set to be the start of a “landmark comedy sitcom season” that will also feature revisits of Are You Being Served?, Porridge, Up Pompeii! and Keeping Up Appearances.

Till Death Us Do Part’s angry protagonist Alf, who was originally played by the late Warren Mitchell, will be seen again in the 1967 episode A Woman’s Place Is In The Home.

Written by Johnny Speight, it features Alf ranting at his wife Else when he returns home to an empty house and a burnt supper in scenes which could jar with modern audiences.

The new season will kick off with a special live episode of Brendan O’Carroll’s sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys, which will be filmed in front of a studio audience in Glasgow. BBC One will have a new comedy panel show called We Love Sitcom hosted by comedian and actor Ben Miller, while on BBC Two viewers will be able to sample five brand new sitcom pilots.

The long-rumoured “special prequel” to Keeping Up Appearances will star a young Hyacinth “Bouquet” Bucket in a one-off episode called Young Hyacinth, set in the late 1950s.

And the special episode of Porridge, written by creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, will see the grandson of Norman Fletcher - also known as Fletch - imprisoned for cyber crimes.

Shane Allen, controller of BBC Comedy Commissioning, said: “This season is about celebrating the BBC’s rich legacy at a time when British comedy is as popular as ever.”