Christopher Biggins

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie - wearing its yeas well

The plotting is lazy, but this big-screen reboot of the much-loved sitcom gets by thanks to its stars and to the endless goodwill cameos.

Harry Enfield interview

The comedian on the Wag Club, Christopher Biggins, and why Virginia Woolf disliked his grandparents.

Christopher Biggins slams down Porridge reboot

'I wish they would leave these things alone,' the actor, who appeared as Lukewarm in the comedy series, admitted after the Beeb decided Porridge would be one of five programmes to come back to our screens in 2016.

Radio Times review

The final chapter of this comforting hug of a programme focuses on the third and final series of Porridge - and its best, according to writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Also the spin-offs: Going Straight, in which Fletcher returns to civvy street; the 1979 movie (filmed at Chelmsford Prison during refurbishment after a fire); and the US adaptation, which featured a Puerto-Rican Fletch.

Going Straight is regularly dismissed in comedy textbooks as disappointing, but the only series made (in 1978) still attracted 15 million and won a Bafta. And marked an early appearance of Nicholas (Only Fools) Lyndhurst as Fletcher's son Raymond.

Christopher Biggins (Lukewarm), Sam Kelly ("Bunny" Warren) and Tony Osoba (McLaren) express pride at their involvement in co-starring in Porridge. And Kate Beckinsale, only five on the death of her father Richard, who played Godber, says she finds repeats "endlessly consoling and surprising". As do many.

Christopher Biggins interview

Christopher Biggins, 65, talks elocution lessons, his sexuality, and his one regret in life.

Christopher Biggins to star in Southend pantomime

Christopher Biggins is set to star in this year's pantomime at the Cliffs Pavilion.

When he was at Cambridge University, bookish Hugh Dennis was nicknamed "Desk Dennis" by his fellows because he was so serious about his studies. To this day Dennis is a quietly thoughtful rather than raucous comedian. So it's unsurprising that his comedy hero is the resolutely unshowbizzy Ronnie Barker.

In parallel with events in his own career, Dennis looks at Barker's life. He meets actress Dame Eileen Atkins, who got to know Barker during his days in rep, and there's a nice chat with Christopher Biggins about Porridge, which "almost made me want to go to prison," says Dennis.

Audio: is Vicious offensive?

The actor Christopher Biggins, and Times TV critic Andrew Billen spoke to the Today programme about Vicious.

When something is rumoured as possibly the worst British film ever, there's a car crash-type need to see it. And when you spy Cliff Richard and Rolf Harris cameoing as buskers during the opening credits you know you're in for a humdinger. This remake of Ray Cooney's 'whoops, where's me trousers?' farce casts Danny Dyer - who else? - as a black cabbie whose bigamist lifestyle is threatened with exposure after a dog food-eating tramp (Judi Dench - what was she thinking?) clocks him one with a handbag. Neil Morrissey sits on a chocolate cake, Richard Briers falls into a hedge, Christopher Biggins pushes Lionel Blair bum-first through a bathroom floor - no one emerges unscathed among the cameo-packed cast that reads largely like a roll-call for Brit TV legends you'd previously suspected deceased.

In this farce, Danny Dyer plays a man with more than one wife. Does that mean he's a Mormon? No, this is a Dyer movie so there is one too many Ms in that description.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to see the stage version of Run For Your Wife. I don't remember much about it but the audience definitely laughed.

This adaptation must surely be very different, then, because there are no funny jokes.

The closest it got to making me guffaw was when Lionel Blair's bottom fell through a bathroom ceiling.

Playing spot "so-and-so off the telly" will help pass the time as there are plenty of actors of Lionel's level in the cast, such as Neil Morrissey, Denise Van Outen and Christopher Biggins.

They are all more convincing than Danny attempting to play a loveable London bigamist covering his tracks.

I appreciate Run For Your Wife is supposed to be dumb, but rarely has a film aimed so low and missed its target so woefully.