BBC to celebrate Sixties satire

Many of the original line-up are set to appear in the 90-minute celebration, set to air on BBC Four in December.

And the production company making the show is David Paradine Productions, the company run by the originator of the Sixties show, David Frost.

The precise format has yet to be decided, trade magazine Broadcast reports, but it will be presented by Frost and will feature interviews and archive clips.

Crucially the show will be filmed in front of a studio audience in November.

The show first aired in 1966, a successor to the more influential That Was The Week That Was, which had come off air three years earlier because the BBC was afraid of appearing impartial in the run-up to a General Election.

It brought together the Monty Python team for the first time, with all but American Terry Gilliam writing on the show.

Frost presented the show – which went out live – with a core cast of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Sheila Steafel and Nicky Henson.

The most famous sketch in the 28 episodes broadcast over 18 months was I Know My Place, in which Cleese, Barker and Corbett representing the three social classes and looking down – or up – at each other.

Producer Trevor Poots told Broadcast: ‘The programme will look at how relevant the issues raised by the original show still are today, and will reveal just how many careers it launched in TV.’

A tribute to The Frost Report:

Published: 18 Sep 2007