Mass Media & Technology

Britbox UK - UK SVoD Platform.

£5.99 per month - Platform now live. (February 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LL
London Lite Founding member
I've also spotted The Best of Cannon and Ball today.
NW
nwtv2003
I've also spotted The Best of Cannon and Ball today.


I watched that yesterday, it was the same 1985 special that was shown on ITV3 recently after ITV showed the Bobby Ball tribute.
MI
Michael
Rather oddly, ITV’s coverage of Charles and Diana’s Wedding has been added to BritBox today.


Well everyone's carping on about Diana at the moment. Plus it's concurrent with the current season of the Crown.
BR
Brekkie
RDJ posted:
Nice to see 2point4 Children have had their Christmas Special put on Britbox. What was once a very popular comedy in the 90's seems to be largely forgotten and never mentioned since it ended.

I suspect Gary Olsen dying soon after the final series put an end to any specials turning up in the noughties, though it is probably a format that could be revived today as a spin-off with one of the kids having 2point4children of their own.

In a way I guess My Family took it's slot, and just like 2point4Children it was pretty popular when it aired but somewhat forgotten once it finished - and I think the fact children become adults means these family sitcoms aren't really ripe for future Christmas specials.
JO
Jon
In a way I guess My Family took it's slot, and just like 2point4Children it was pretty popular when it aired but somewhat forgotten once it finished - and I think the fact children become adults means these family sitcoms aren't really ripe for future Christmas specials.

Also both set in Chiswick for some reason. Difficult to imagine the BBC commissioning a mainstream family sitcom set in London now.
JO
Jonwo
The issue with My Family was it was designed to be formulaic, the creator Fred Barron essentially applied the American sitcom formula to a British sitcom.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
RDJ posted:
Nice to see 2point4 Children have had their Christmas Special put on Britbox. What was once a very popular comedy in the 90's seems to be largely forgotten and never mentioned since it ended.

I suspect Gary Olsen dying soon after the final series put an end to any specials turning up in the noughties, though it is probably a format that could be revived today as a spin-off with one of the kids having 2point4children of their own.

In a way I guess My Family took it's slot, and just like 2point4Children it was pretty popular when it aired but somewhat forgotten once it finished - and I think the fact children become adults means these family sitcoms aren't really ripe for future Christmas specials.


Outnumbered is touted to want to keep coming back every year, though it hasn't seen a new episode since 2016, and of course one of its USPs was the fact it was partly improvised on the part of the children (in a "out of the mouth of babes" sort of thing). Unfortunately by the time the last special episode aired in 2016, the youngest child was like 15 years old and the entire premise doesn't quite work once you get over a certain age... Indeed by the time the show's fifth series was on air content wise it was stretching the premise a bit, as it was three years after the 4th, but rating wise it was solid, and I think it only ended because they didn't want to recast everybody and do "Outnumbered 2" as it were, as they probably couldn't be that lucky again.
JA
james-2001

I suspect Gary Olsen dying soon after the final series put an end to any specials turning up in the noughties


It wasn't even meant to be the final series, it had already been commissioned for a 9th series and they were well into planning it when Gary Olsen found out he had terminal cancer.
VM
VMPhil
I always thought it was given the final joke about it never being available on video?
MI
Michael
Closest thing to a "family"-themed sitcom now is the evolution version of Not Going Out
JO
Jonwo
The Brittas Empire is another sitcom which was successful in the 90s but has largely been forgotten about.
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
More old school classics coming in January

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