Says BBC comedy chief

One or more of the sitcoms being rebooted by the BBC could return for a full series, the corporation’s comedy chief Shane Allen says.

Classic comedies including Are You Being Served?, Porridge, Goodnight Sweetheart and Keeping Up Appearances have been revisited as part of the Landmark Sitcom season, starting on Sunday.

And although they were only commissioned as one-offs, Allen said that need not be the end of it.

‘The audience will be judge and jury,’ he said when asked about possible series at a screening of the rebooted Porridge, starring Kevin Bishop as the grandson of Ronnie Barker’s original Fletch.

‘This was genuinely conceived as a one-off,’ he added, saying he had subsequently met with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who wrote both the original and the new episode, but said: ‘We haven't discussed it yet.’

Bishop said he’d be up for a series. ‘If Dick and Ian are willing to write more I would absolutely like to do more,’ he said.

Allen added that while nostalgic sitcoms should be part of the BBC One offering, ‘we have to make sure it’s not all that’s at the forefront. We have to get the balance right.’

The flagship channel has had success with Still Open All Hours, while the likes of Mrs Brown’s Boys and Citizen Kane have old-fashioned elements.

Allen also said that there had been a lot of media focus on the reboots, much of it critical about meddling with old classics. But he said: ‘I hope this season spawns a debate about comedy –  and after losing Victoria Wood and Caroline Aherne, it’s a chance to celebrate comedy writing. This kind of great writing is very rare and we should celebrate it and bring some love to those people  who've defined the genre over the decades.’

‘Comedy is often looked down on taken for granted,’ he told the Edinburgh International Television Festival. ‘This is a chance to go "comedy matters". And the BBC has never not done comedy, even though commercially it goes up and down.’

Aside from Are You Being Served?, which has been written by Benidorm creator Darren Litten, the choice of which sitcoms to revisit was based on which original writers wanted to get involved because: ‘It had to be their voice.’

Asked if a reboot of Fawlty Towers had been on the cards, Allen said: ‘We didn’t have that conversation as John Cleese was busy doing the stage version in Australia.’

Porridge airs on BBC One on Sunday at 9.30pm, immediately after the new Are You Being Served?

As well as revisiting the classics for BBC One, the season includes new pilots for BBC Two, new comedy feeds for BBC Three, and lost episodes of old sitcoms re-recorded for BBC Four.

• Our guide to what’s on when in the BBC’s Landmark Sitcom season

Published: 25 Aug 2016