70's Sitcom's Made Into Films .. Why?

By a long, long, time - Brendan O'Carroll has been doing the Mrs Browne role since 1990 or thereabouts (I believe it originated in an RTÉ Radio 1 show although I can't remember it.). The 1999 Hollywood film Agnes Browne, in which Angelica Hueston played the character is more or less forgotten now.

I think it depends on the series - repeats of Dad's Army have been regular fixtures of BBC1/2 ever since it was made, long before the archive channels existed (and isn't it also a regular feature of the 'backup' schedule to air when a live programme goes kaput?). Yet I can't remember the last time the film was shown (awaits the inevitability that it got aired 2 weeks ago!). For other sitcoms the reverse is true (particularly On The Buses, although it's not an example I like to use as I don't believe it's as simple as a BBC/ITV split).

Although we do have one thing to thank the Dad's Army film for - the discovery in 2001 of two of the missing episodes from the second series, as they'd been shown to Columbia Pictures when the film was in the planning stages.

IMDb lists Elstree Studios and Lynford Hall in Norfolk as recording locations for 'Allo 'Allo... I expect there were plenty more locations for the exteriors.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086659/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt
Actually it seems Lynford Hall crops up as a location for three Perry/Croft sitcoms plus a mini series called "Love on a Branch Line"
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?locations=Lynford%20Hall,%20Lynford,%20Norfolk,%20England,%20UK

Apart from Series 1 & 2 & the one episode from Series 3 that only existed in black & white until a few years ago, did other colour DA episodes only exist in black & white until the Aussies returned them later?

I used to have the Bill Pertwee book & vaguely remember something.

And yet of course there was Guest House Paradiso where the Bottom characters had different surnames.

Of course, while it's most associated with the 1970s, there's still a few recent examples, like The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse a few years ago and the upcoming Alan Partridge film. Plus In The Loop featured Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker with other members of The Thick of It cast in different roles.

And then there's the most successful British comedy film ever made, The Inbetweeners Movie.

Minder On The Orient Express is an odd one, where as Rising Damp, Porridge, On The Buses, etc. movies* were all shown in the cinemas with different sets & themes to their TV Equivalents, Minder On The Orient Express was a TV movie*, shown on Thames (and I presume the rest of the ITV Network) on Christmas Day 1985.

What makes it odd is the theme tune & titles don't make an appearance at all, instead they are rather different entirely, they never did this with the other Minder Christmas specials, there's no mention on wikipedia as to why they did this, was it originally planned to be shown at the cinema at one stage & Thames/Euston Films changed their minds at the last minute?


*On a side note, according to Firefox movie(s) is not a word

I heard "film(s)" is preferred in British English.

On the main topic, I can say everything is about making money out of every story. That's why Sherlock Holmes is adopted into various media several times.

This must be a new development for the BOAF tour as last year's version used the full title sequence (updated) and theme tune at the start of the show - complete with logo, whilst the set was a condensed lookalike of the set used for most of the TV run. I wonder if they subsequently got in trouble and had to change things this year?

Noticed the first On The Buses film is on today on Itv3 & at 450pm the Radio Control episode is on too.

Was the Radio Control segment also used in the first or second film?

Second.