BBC confirms second series and Xmas special

BBC One has confirmed a second series of Still Open All Hours, starting with a Christmas special.

Filming on the new episodes begins on location in Doncaster this week.

All the key cast are confirmed to be returning, including Sir David Jason as Granville, Johnny Vegas as Eric and James Baxter as Leroy.

The festive special sees Granville bagging himself a dodgy bargain Christmas tree; Eric (Johnny Vegas) and Cyril (Kulvinder Ghir) embarking on a new fitness regime and, Granville and Leroy trying to entice Madge (Brigit Forsyth) to their festive party.

Also returning to the new series is Tim Healy as love-stuck Gastric and Nina Wadia as gossip Mrs Hussein, as well as original cast members Lynda Baron as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, Stephanie Cole as The Black Widow and Maggie Ollerenshaw as Mavis.

Executive producer Gareth Edwards says: ‘It‘s wonderful to be returning with our fantastic cast to Granville’s daft, warm and life-affirming world, full of the kind of characters and situations that could only come from the remarkable mind of [writer] Roy Clarke.’

The last series of the show regularly attracted more than 6million viewers on overnight figures, averaging 7.7million when catch-up viewings in the subsequent seven days were taken into account.

Still Open All Hours is an in-house BBC Comedy production, produced by Alex Walsh-Taylor and directed by Dewi Humphreys.

Published: 14 Sep 2015