BBC Sitcom season.

And I notice the picture before you start playing the video has the BBC Three logo on it. But watch the video... and no mention of BBC IIi anywhere!

Your quite right they have no mention of BBC Three in that video but they are a part of the sitcom season courtesy of the official press release;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/sitcomseason/comedy-feeds-2016

I noticed the lost sitcoms are being done in a bare-bones set theatrical style way, I'd assumed they'd have been full scale recrations with proper sets. I gues they've decided it will work better in that format.

At least they have included NI in the graphic and not just used the map of Britain.

If BBC ONE and II! get coloured arrows, why didn't they colour TWO's in as well?

It's exactly what I was expecting on a BBC Four budget.

They have, it's just a very dark shade of teal.

BBC Radio 4 first started doing recreations of missing-presumed-wiped "Hancock" episodes, using the original scripts, a few years back (with Kevin McNally in the Hancock role since the outset). It was variously both a radio and television show during its original 1960s lifetime anyway.

Arguably, even the original TV scripts of Hancock/Alf Garnett/Steptoe in their day were largely akin to radio scripts anyway (i.e. the dialogue and soundscape largely painting a picture of what's happening visually, so there's generally little need for the audience at home to literally be able to see anything).

These upcoming BBC Four adaptions play with that fact, by using essentially a "radio show on the telly" minimalist style. Which I wholeheartedly applaud them for doing.

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Are You Being Served? - BBC One Sunday 28 August, 9pm
Picking up where Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's classic comedy left off, the show brings Grace Brothers and some of the nation's all-time favourite sitcom characters, including Mrs Slocombe, Captain Peacock and Mr Humphries, back to life with an all-star cast.

It's 1988 and Young Mr Grace is determined to drag Grace Brothers into, well 1988, but he has a problem on his hands. Mr Humphries, Captain Peacock, Mr Rumbold and Mrs Slocombe all seem to be stuck in another era. A new member of staff, Mr Conway, joins the team - but will he help shake things up or will he just put a pussy among the pigeons?

Are You Being Served? was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC Channels and iPlayer and Shane Allen, Controller of BBC Comedy Commissioning. It will be produced by Jam. This brand new one-off special is written by the multi-award winning Derren Litten (Benidorm, The Catherine Tate Show).


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Porridge - BBC One Sunday 28 August, 9:30pm
Imprisoned for a series of cyber-crimes, Fletch finds himself beholden to prison bad boy Richie Weeks and forced to use his hacking skills to get Weeks off the hook. The problem being that wily Officer Meekie has got his beady eye on Fletch - he knows a wrongun when he sees one.

Written by the original series creators, the legendary Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it is produced by Richard Webb (Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, The Kennedys, House Of Fools), and directed by Dominic Brigstocke (Tracey Ullman’s Show, I’m Alan Partridge, Green Wing). The Executive Producer is Gregor Sharp (The Rack Pack, Boomers, The Trip). It is a BBC Studios production.

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Goodnight Sweetheart - BBC One Friday 2 September, 9pm
We last saw time-travelling TV repairman Gary Sparrow (Nicholas Lyndhurst) 17 years ago when his mysterious time-portal closed for good, leaving him trapped forever in 1945 with his East End pub-owning wife Phoebe (Elizabeth Carling), their none-too-bright friend Reg (Christopher Ettridge) and their toddler son Michael. Abandoned in 1999, and sadly resigned to never seeing him again, were his original wife, the successful and glamorous Yvonne (Emma Amos) and his oldest friend Ron (Victor McGuire).

Now, 17 years have gone by and it’s 1962 - the year Gary was in fact born. Is it possible he could actually witness the event? Well, obviously not, according to the elementary rules of time travel: it might cause some very startling consequences such as being catapulted ahead into 2016 - a world he knows nothing about.

This one-off special is written by original creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds of a Feather) and sees the return of the entire original cast from 1999, and they are joined by youngsters Tim Preston, Esme Coy (in real life Emma Amos’ daughter), Liam Jeavons and Khali Best.

Directed by Martin Dennis (Men Behaving Badly), executive produced by Jon Rolph (Chewing Gum) and produced by Humphrey Barclay (Desmond’s), Goodnight Sweetheart looks set to find its place in the nation’s affections all over again.

It is produced by Retort, a FremantleMedia UK label specialising in scripted comedy.

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Young Hyacinth - BBC One Friday 2 September, 9.30pm
Set in the late 1950s in a crowded canal cottage, Hyacinth’s desperate attempts to transform her sisters and her Dad (Mark Addy - Game Of Thrones, The Full Monty) into an altogether better class of family are not always appreciated.

The sisters have their own dreams and ambitions, Violet (Tamla Kari - The Musketeers) dreams of wealth, Daisy (Katherine Pearce - Our Girl) dreams of the great outdoors and Rose (Katie Redford - Mount Pleasant) dreams of film stars and boys; whilst Hyacinth dreams of the day she’ll have matching china. Oh and how she wishes that her darling Daddy, currently scraping by as a part-time brush salesman with a tricycle and a drink problem, could be more like ex-Squadron Leader Cooper-Smith for whom she works as a maid.

Interesting that they are 3 different concepts, 2 are a remake with a new cast, 1 is a new episode with the same cast and 1 is a prequel with a new cast.

Not sure why they are airing them back to back at 9/9:30

I'm surprised Goodnight Sweetheart is only 30 minutes... surely a lot of plot will need explaining in that time.

Excellent cut and pasting in the press release, there.

Although it's a shame they're not being used to launch new comedies it's the logical scheduling really - there aren't half hour slots they can be put into easily and they'd be lost if left to air at 9pm on Fridays.

Of the four I'd be surprise if Are you being Served? and Young Hyacinth don't get commissioned for full series - they've built too strong a cast for the first to be a one-off whilst Keeping up Appearances is the BBC's most successful output, so milking a bit more out of that will be tempting.