It has been revealed in this week’s press that comedian David Walliams is to write a new sketch show for the BBC, ten years after Little Britain ended.
It means time will be called on his other sitcom “Big School” which he created with Catherine Tate and Philip Glenister, set in a comprehensive school and it followed the relationships of the teachers. Its ratings fell from 4.2 million in 2013, to 2.3 million in the second series.
Walliams said of Big School “ The BBC asked for a third series, but I asked to do a new sketch show instead, and they agreed.”
He has also signed a deal to turn two of his children’s books into Christmas TV specials
for the BBC.
After ending on a high Still Open All Hours is staying open for business a little longer as the BBC has comissioned series 2 no transmission dates yet, but we’d guess Granville will be back at Christmas.
August will soon be upon us and that means The Edinburgh Festival. One of the highlights this year is the return of some more classic gems from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Missing episodes of the hit BBC comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour are to be resurrected at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer after their scripts were rediscovered.
Four scripts, which were among the 20 thought lost from the broadcaster’s archives, will be performed at the Assembly Rooms in August after being unearthed by actor Neil Pearson.
Mr Pearson, who will direct the stage show, called The Missing Hancocks, said the four scripts had not been performed before and were “as fresh and funny as if they were written yesterday”.
“Galton and Simpson are still very much with us. I went along to them and asked them to choose five episodes to hear again if I could persuade the BBC to re-record them,” Mr Pearson added.
Like the recent radio recordings, the Fringe show casts Pirates of the Caribbean star Kevin McNally as Hancock.
He added: “When people come to the live show it will be as if you are attending the original radio recording in the 1950s. The characters will have the scripts in their hands around a 1950s microphone, just as it would have been recorded at the BBC.”
source: Independent.co.uk