Landmark Sitcom Season

Television series

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Landmark Sitcom Season is a BBC project,[1] launched in March 2016, to mark 60 years since Hancock's Half Hour started on BBC television.

As part of ongoing celebrations throughout 2016, the BBC commissioned new scripts for iconic British sitcoms of the prior six decades.

## Sitcoms

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### New episodes

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The landmark sitcom season began in the summer of 2016 with a live airing of Mrs. Brown's Boys.

Serial
no.  | Title  | Show  | Director  | Writer  | Original air date  | UK viewers
(in millions)

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1| "Mammy Sutra"| Mrs. Brown's Boys| Ben Kellett| Brendan O'Carroll| 23 July 2016 (2016-07-23)| 9.09

When Agnes discovers that Mark and Betty are having bedroom problems, she takes it upon herself to help. Meanwhile, as Dermot's business grows, he has a difficult decision to make about his best friend Buster.

2| "You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks"[2]| Are You Being Served?| Dewi Humphreys| Derren Litten| 28 August 2016 (2016-08-28)| 6.26

Grace Brothers are now under the management of new Young Mr Grace (Mathew Horne), the grandson of the store's founder. Determined to drag retailing into the modern era of 1988, the new owner has to overturn the old ways still favoured by Captain Peacock (John Challis), Mrs Slocombe (Sherrie Hewson), Mr Humphries (Jason Watkins), Miss Brahms (Niky Wardley), Mr Grainger (Roy Barraclough), Mr Harman (Arthur Smith), Mr Rumbold (Justin Edwards), and newcomer Mr Conway, played by Kayode Ewumi.

3| "Porridge"[3]| Porridge| Dominic Brigstocke| Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais| 28 August 2016 (2016-08-28)| 5.38

40 years after his grandfather, Norman Stanley Fletcher, served time at HMP Slade, Nigel Norman Fletcher (Kevin Bishop) has been sentenced to five years for computer hacking.

4| "Young Hyacinth"[5]| Keeping Up Appearances| Sandy Johnson| Roy Clarke| 2 September 2016 (2016-09-02)| 4.14

The 1950s see a young Hyacinth Walton[4](Kerry Howard) working as a maid for the well-off Cooper-Smiths. She and her siblings live together in a crowded canal cottage with their father, a part-time brush salesman with a drink problem. She dreams of the day when she succeeds in transforming her sisters, Daisy, Violet and Rose, into an altogether better class of family.

5| "Many Happy Returns"[6]| Goodnight Sweetheart| Martin Dennis| Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran| 2 September 2016 (2016-09-02)| 4.66

It is 1962 and Gary Sparrow has been trapped in the past for 17 years. About to celebrate his birthday, he decides to visit the hospital on the very day he was born. Aware of the delicate nature of the fabric of space and time, Gary is not prepared for what happens next. How have Yvonne and Ron coped in his absence? What will Phoebe and Reg do if he doesn't return?

### Lost sitcoms

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In addition to the new episodes produced, the BBC also commissioned remakes of three episodes from its classic sitcoms under the banner of the "Lost Sitcoms".[7] Of these, the selected episodes of both Till Death Us Do Part[8] and Hancock's Half Hour[9] are missing from the BBC archives, while the episode of Steptoe and Son, originally broadcast in colour, exists only as an off-air black & white videotape recording.[10]

Serial
no.  | Title  | Director  | Writer  | Original air date  | UK viewers
(in millions)

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1| "A Woman's Place Is In The Home"| Ben Gosling Fuller| Johnny Speight| 1 September 2016 (2016-09-01)| 0.57

Alf Garnett arrives home to find himself in an empty house with a burnt supper and sets about putting things right using his local telephone box.

2| "The New Neighbour"| Ben Gosling Fuller| Ray Galton & Alan Simpson| 8 September 2016 (2016-09-08)| 0.35

Tony Hancock's new neighbour has a very, very suspicious night-time routine.

3| "A Winter's Tale"| Ben Gosling Fuller| Ray Galton & Alan Simpson| 14 September 2016 (2016-09-14)| 0.37

Harold Steptoe is desperate to go on a skiing holiday – but he doesn't want his father Albert there, under any circumstances.

## Under consideration

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Another sitcom marked for possible remake and broadcast was Up Pompeii!.[1]

## References

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1. ^ a b "BBC – BBC launches landmark sitcom season across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four – Media Centre".
2. ^ "You Can't Teach a New Dog Old Tricks, Are You Being Served? – BBC One".
3. ^ "Porridge – BBC One".
4. ^ "Young Hyacinth (2016) s01e01 Episode Script – SS".
5. ^ "Young Hyacinth – BBC One".
6. ^ "Many Happy Returns, Goodnight Sweetheart – BBC One".
7. ^ "Lost Sitcoms – How a hole in the BBC archive helped wake the comedy ghosts of Alf Garnett, Albert Steptoe and Tony Hancock – BBC Four".
8. ^ "Till Death Us Do Part". Missing-Episodes.com. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
9. ^ "Hancock's Half Hour". Missing-Episodes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
10. ^ "The Lost Colour Steptoe episodes". albertandharold.co.uk. The Steptoe and Son Appreciation Society. Retrieved 21 September 2016.