Britons 'want Del Boy TV return

Don't give the BBC ideas! That's Christmas Day 9pm sorted then!

Actually, all the main cast members are still alive (Basil, Sybil, Polly and Manuel), and they're the only ones that really matter. They could easily explain away (or just not make any reference to) the dead ones like Terry and The Major.

But I'm sure none of them would be interested, and it would of course be totally implausible to have them all working at the same hotel 30 years later, unless the storyline showed them all being reunited under a different premise.

Years ago there were actually plans for a Fawlty Towers film, and a plot was drawn up, but Cleese changed his mind and pulled out.

Patricia Routledge said she would never do it again, all of the cast with the exception of PR wanted to do another Series back in 1996, but she said no simply because she didn't want to be recognised as Hyacinth Bucket, which is fair enough, she is a very talented actress and probably doesn't want to be soley recognised for just one role.

The reasons why most shows end is because they run out of steam, most being far past their sell by date, so rather than carry them on just put them out of their misery. People go on and on about how they would want The Big Breakfast or Brookside back on, but they were axed as they were simply not as good as they were, and I think bringing any back would simply do the programme no favours at all.

Best example I can think of is Crossroads, people were expecting to see a poorly acted soap with Brummie accents and wobbly sets, what they got instead was a little OTT soap about a Hotel where everyone was having an affair behind people's back. Only Fools and Horses wasn't much better either, the three episodes they did were very poor and the viewers thought likewise, ending it in 1996 is what they should have kept to,

If you could get a little more out of it, then I don't object to one offs, best one I think was The Royle Family, I cannot say for Allo Allo or To The Manor Born, but it shouldn't be done with every axed programme there was.

Let be honset,

allo allo was a clip show!
to the manor born was seing how thing have gone of about 30 years later:

Keeping up.. could be good as a one off!

Only Fools and Horses has already come back and it was pretty bad. It's all these stubborn people who say "Bring back OFAH!" so that we can have just one last special.

I was watching an interview John Sullivan gave in 2002, soon before the 2nd special "Strangers on the Shore" came out, and he said that it only ended in 1996 because the show became a victim of its own success - cast members were being offered new roles elsewhere, so was Sullivan, and they couldn't get everyone together.

He and producer Gareth Gwenlyn met up in 1994 and agreed that they should go out in a blaze of glory instead of fading away. So they booked everyone up two years in advance for 1996, and did the Christmas trilogy. However, the mood afterwards was one of regret, and nobody really wanted it to end. The BBC finally cottoned on, and Gwenlyn said that they may do a millennium special for 2000 or 2001, depending on which year was counted as such (officially, it was 2001).

Then even before he had written the first scene, Sullivan got the news that Buster Merryfield (Uncle Albert) had had a brain tumour, and then another later in 1999 that he had died. Sullivan thought that he couldn't bring in yet another long-lost relative like he had when Grandad went, so he used Damien instead. In 2001, as everything was coming together, news came that Kenneth MacDonald (Mike) had also passed away. Everything had also been planned for the ITV "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" crossover to happen, which was written as a remedy to 9/11 - both channels would show that they could combat this atrocity by joining hands for a laugh at Christmas. Of course, it never happened, and Jonathan Ross was brought in at the last minute.

So it's more a case of coincidence rather than doing it for the money. Having said that, I still don't think Sullivan should keep going "never say never", because Green Green Grass really is flogging a dead horse, and making fools of themselves.

Fawlty Towers couldn't come back either because Connie Booth refuses to talk about or associate herself with the series, and John Cleese would never write a new episode now.

The Royle Family also came back and that was pretty good, but I don't think it could be done again.

The basic truth is that the BBC are running out of classic sitcoms to "bring back" just to get the ratings. We have:

Porridge (Ronnie Barker is dead)
Open All Hours (same as above)
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (Leonard Rossiter is dead - anyway they had a fourth series without him and that didn't work)
The Vicar of Dibley (already had a definitive ending recently)
Only Fools and Horses (ended twice)
To The Manor Born (already done)
As Time Goes By (already done)
dinnerladies (doubt Victoria Wood would want to)
Fawlty Towers (as said above)
One Foot in the Grave (Victor Meldrew is dead)
Dad's Army (most of the cast are dead)
The Good Life (Paul Eddington is dead)
Yes, (Prime) Minister (Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne are dead)
Keeping Up Appearances (Patricia Routledge won't do it)
Men Behaving Badly (rumours were around a few years ago, but it never happened)
Absolutely Fabulous (already came back)
Red Dwarf (not a mainstream show, and unlikely to be given a ninth series or special)
Are You Being Served? (John Inman is dead, as are some others)

And many more, but none big enough to sustain a full-blown return, except maybe one...

Blackadder? It's the only real possibility, but it could well ruin the original series. The millennium special came close to that.

Didn't Porridge come back in the last few years? It was on BBC Two and I don't think Ronnie Barker was in it.



This came back for a Comic Relief special after Victor Meldrew died. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but the fact that Victor Meldrew had died was handled very well in the special. Is this episode on any of the DVDs?

Yes, Norman Stanley Fletcher and Margo Leadbetter were the subjects of Life Beyond the Box, which just looked at sitcom characters over the last few years. Ronnie Barker appeared as Fletch in the last few minutes, but Margo didn't. These aren't exactly special episodes though.

And yes, the 2001 One Foot in the Grave thing was for Comic Relief, and again is not a proper, full-length special.

I remember at the time thinking that the last series of One Foot in the Grave in 2000 wouldn't be the same and that it would go out on a whimper but thanks to David Renwick's genius mystifying writing - it all finished on a high. Simply having clips of Victor's final moments to the tune of It's All Right by the Traveling Wilburys.

As has been said, Victor Meldrew died and Richard Wilson would never want to play him again as he's now totally fed up with him and THAT catchphrase.

I'd also like to see Keeping Up Appearances return but obviously there would be no Rose (the 2nd actress Mary Millar died in 1998) and Daddy (not that he was a prominent feature in the show). Some of the outtakes to this show are up on Youtube and are hilarious! I think Patricia Routledge has retired from television now and AFAIK doesn't do many radio plays anymore. Clive Swift still appears in the odd dramas now and again and I'd imagine he'd be up for another episode. I think its only Geoff Hughes and Josephine Tewson who are still frequently doing TV work nowadays. Basically taking into account that many of the cast were really stage/radio actors. This doesn't rule out one final return however...and the Sheridan civil partnership idea sounds brilliant!

And you think you are joking! My bets are on Birds of a Feather. I can't remember how it ended but you can imagine Sharon and Tracey still living in chigwell in the same situation. Throw in loads of gags about facebook and youtube and there you have it.

They definally shouldn't do more OFAH, David Jason looks too old now to be Del Boy. I'm sure Lyndhurst would do one though, considering the dross he now appears in

I wonder what they will use for the edgier later comedy as well next Christmas Day now that Little Britain and Catherine Tate are pretty much off the agenda

Haha, I can imagine it now...

Dorien: "Coo-ee! Guess what girls?"
Sharon: "-Oh look its Amy Winehouse...You've won the Lottery?"
Dorien: "Nope, since leaving Marcus I've decided only one thing is possible... I've got a webcam!"

The way they did Allo Allo last year was actually quite clever I think.

Rather than simply doing a one-off epi, they did a reunion in front of studio audience (breaking the fourth wall)-- with all the actors that were available reprising their roles. They interspersed it with a retrospective documentary, interviewing the rest of the surviving cast.

I'm glad they thought about it and made an effort, instead of just making a shoddy one-off epi for the sake of it.

I agree that Only Fools and Horses should be left to rest, but I do not agree that the three episodes between 2001 and 2003 ruined the show as a whole.

For me, it will always be the best situation comedy ever, as it wasn't full of irrelevant jokes. It had a storyline, it was more like a drama than any other. The acting was excellent, the scripts were genius.

Few people know that Only Fools and Horses was due to end in 1986, when Sir David Jason was thinking about moving on to other projects. Thankfully, he decided to stay on!