I think a full series of Goodnight Sweetheart is likely, if only because the cast and writers are pushing for one. There's certainly plenty of scope for one, with Gary in two different decades to the previous series, and the twist of him now being the one lost in the future with lots to learn is an interesting angle.
Sherrie Hewson certainly spoke about Are You Being Served as if it was a longer term project when she announced she was leaving Loose Women.
Good point regarding Goodnight Sweetheart - and with that in mind kind of agree they've a lot to cover in half an hour. Wasn't he stuck in WWII so they'll need to explain how he's back in the present, and whether he's just been missing for nearly 20 years.
If they don't progress to series I'd expect them to at least get a Christmas special out of some of them.
Porridge is the only one I don't really see returning - if David Jason can't live up to Ronnie Barker then Kevin Bishop hasn't got a chance. Must admit though it's one of the classic sitcoms I've never really seen for some reason.
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.
Porridge is ostensibly a sequel, but is also part-remake.
Then there are the recreations of lost episodes with new casts, as well. And the brand new series/pilots.
Of the four I'd be surprise if Are you being Served? and Young Hyacinth don't get commissioned for full series
I can see
Young Hyacinth
happening, but not AYBS - I think caricature comedy of that type is too much of its own time, and I don't think you can expect actors-impersonating-other-actors'-characters to work long term. I doubt the actors would enjoy it much, either.
:-(
A former member
That is a bit unfair about AYBS, the whole reason is to celebrate how great BBC sitcoms have been. If you look at what has been created its because there never had any true tributes to them. Allo allo, had that Special 90mins programme on BBC two, Dad Army had that film etc.
I bet the actors enjoyed paying tribute to this classic. I agree Goodnight sweetheart, could get a decent run.
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.
Although the other side of that is that the cast is so strong it would be too hard to get them together for a full series.
Really looking forward to Goodnight Sweetheart but that is going to have to go at quite a pace to fit in 1962, 2016, Gary's reappearance, what his wife and Ron have been up to and introducing new characters in half an hour. Really hope it gets a couple of series off the back of it. I suppose the only question is whether 1962 is that interesting - the war running through the initial run gave a lot of scope for storylines.
Genuinely looking forward to the rest of it too - old and new. Kerry Howard seems to have got Hyacinth's mannerisms down to a tee judging by the trailer.
It'll be interesting to see Young Hyacinth, wasn't it the case in the past that Roy Clarke and Harold Snoad (The director of KUA) didn't always see eye to eye?
My only concern is the story development, KUA was basically a paint by numbers every week and the few times they deviated it didn't really work - I saw the fun fair episode the other week which was pretty bad!
Looking at the credits for Goodnight Sweetheart, it has the exact same producer, exec producer and director (Humphrey Barclay, Jon Rolph and Martin Dennis) as the revived Birds of a Feather series (and obviously the same writers/creators, Marks & Gran, too).
On that note, I see the Godber character in the Porridge revival is called Lotterby, in a nod to Sydney Lotterby who produced or directed a lot of the BBC light entertainment and on particular sitcom output, including Porridge.
It'll be interesting to see Young Hyacinth, wasn't it the case in the past that Roy Clarke and Harold Snoad (The director of KUA) didn't always see eye to eye?
My only concern is the story development, KUA was basically a paint by numbers every week and the few times they deviated it didn't really work - I saw the fun fair episode the other week which was pretty bad!
I'm not sure we're meant to compare it to Keeping Up Appearances - I'm expecting to see a Call The Midwife wannabe rather than a sitcom.