New series after 15 years

Birds Of A Feather is returning to TV after a 15 year absence.

Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph will all return to the series, which is due to be recorded this autumn.

But although the original ran for nine years and more than 100 episodes on BBC One – where it drew audiences of up to 20 million – the revival will be made for ITV.

Creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran reportedly approached the BBC first, but executives only wanted to make a Christmas special, while their commercial rivals were ready to commit to a full series – so secured the coup.

An ITV spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that we have commissioned a new series of Birds of Feather and we're really excited to be welcoming Sharon, Tracey and Dorien to ITV. We will confirm more details in due course.'

Linda Robson, now a regular on Loose Women, confirmed the news this morning after it was discussed on breakfast TV.

She tweeted: ‘Apparently Daybreak announced that birds is coming back [...] they've got baggy mouths that lot haha and yes it's true yaaayyyy.’

The new series will comprise eight episodes, and be written by Marks and Gran along with Gary Lawson and John Phelps.

It was commissioned from production houses Retort and Quirky Media by ITV's Myfanwy Moore after Robson, Quirke and Joseph toured a stage version of the show last year.

Speaking last year, Joseph said of what was then only a rumoured comeback: ‘People remember Birds Of A Feather so fondly because it didn't tail off at the end - the standard of the scripts didn't deteriorate. None of us would want to make a new series that was below standard.’

Published: 18 Jun 2013