Lesley Joseph

It was a little discombobulating to see Birds Of A Feather back on our screens after 15 years, albeit transposed from the BBC to ITV. Essex sisters Sharon (Pauline Quirke) and Tracey (Linda Robson) were initially estranged, while maneater Dorien (Lesley Joseph) had hit the big time by writing a 50 Shades-style bonkbuster under the nom de plume "Foxy Cohen". After a series of unfortunate events, they were all reunited under the same roof by the end of the first episode, a housing situation complicated by Sharon's teenage son Travis (played, rather confusingly, by Pauline Quirke's real-life offspring Charlie Quirke) and the late arrival of another sibling, Garth (former Busted heartthrob Matt Willis), with his new Aussie partner and a kid in tow.

Stuffing all these bodies into one Chigwell house is a smart sitcom move, although past masters Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran didn't need proximity and antagonism to craft gags, firing them out willy-nilly from the off. With pointed jabs at Cameron and Osborne, it made me wonder: did the show used to be so politically minded? In performance terms, Robson, Quirke and Joseph had the benefit of a recent theatre tour warm-up, so it seemed very much like busybody-ness as usual. As yet, there have been no references to The Only Way Is Essex, but surely it's only a matter of time.

Fans surprised as return turns out not to be terrible

Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph all returned for tonight's inaugural episode, titled Gimme Shelter, with Matt Willis in the role of Garth - and feedback was positive.

Birds Of A Feather (ITV), which began in 1989, has been away from our screens for 15 years. The trio of smashing actresses who carry the show - Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph - must have been preserved in aspic, because none of them looks any older than they did in the Nineties.

The big change here is that Birds was always a BBC comedy. After the sitcom's West End stage success, writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran approached the corporation and were told, implausibly, that Auntie's policy is never to do revivals.

That makes little sense, when you consider that the BBC's most popular drama, Doctor Who, lay dormant for more than a decade before being revived.

Anyway, it's the Beeb's loss, because Birds was as funny and edgy as ever. Sex-mad Dorian had reinvented herself as an erotic author called Foxey Cohen, Tracy was a single mum again and Sharon was still boiling with working-class indignation.

'Mr Cameron says we're all in this together,' she grumbled, 'so how come I never bump into him down by the bins?'

After a break of 15 years we return to Chigwell for the further adventures of Tracey, Sharon and Dorien, stars of this unashamedly old-school sitcom. It's like they've never been away, with Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph scarcely missing a beat as they slip into their old roles, though there's a bit of plot jiggery pokery required to get them back under the same roof. Dorien, for one, has been busy researching erotic corker Sixty Shades Of Green...

It's been 15 years since Tracey, Sharon and Dorien graced our screens in what was, back in the day, a rare example of a female-centred sitcom. Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph return, a little older but just as sharp, with each of them slipping easily into their old role as if it was a comfortable dressing gown.

Mouthy Sharon's living in an Edmonton tower block and is clearly down on her luck, her older sister Tracey's still living in Chigwell with son Travis (played by Pauline Quirke's real-life son Charlie), while man-eating Dorien has repackaged herself as Foxy Cohen, author of the sex blockbuster Sixty Shades of Green.

This episode reunites the trio and introduces us to Tracey's other son, Garth, who's played by Busted's Matt Willis. While the humour is hardly cutting edge, it will make a lot of people smile.

Birds Of A Feather, which began in 1989, has been away from our screens for 15 years. The trio of smashing actresses who carry the show - Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph - must have been preserved in aspic, because none of them looks any older than they did in the Nineties.

The big change here is that Birds was always a BBC comedy. After the sitcom's West End stage success, writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran approached the corporation and were told, implausibly, that Auntie's policy is never to do revivals.

That makes little sense, when you consider that the BBC's most popular drama, Doctor Who, lay dormant for more than a decade before being revived.

Anyway, it's the Beeb's loss, because Birds was as funny and edgy as ever. Sex-mad Dorian had reinvented herself as an erotic author called Foxey Cohen, Tracy was a single mum again and Sharon was still boiling with working-class indignation.

'Mr Cameron says we're all in this together,' she grumbled, 'so how come I never bump into him down by the bins?'

The Birds are back!

15 years on, Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph reveal why the time is ripe for a revival.

Radio Times review

This is billed as a panel game but it's more of a parlour game - perhaps after a stodgy supper, given the pervading air of lethargy - in which four comedy stars flop out on sofas separated by a bank of TV screens from host Jo Brand.

Team captains Rebecca Front and Barry Cryer are joined by guests Tony Robinson and Hugh Dennis, who divulge a few of their own comedy secrets and answer questions that pop up on screen from the likes of Andrew Sachs, Lesley Joseph and Shaun Williamson. It's mildly amusing, but Jo Brand is always better unscripted.

A welcome repeat of the enjoyable documentary, shown on BBC Four last year, exploring why sexual frustration still underpins British comedy. Leslie Phillips (star of the risqué Casanova '73) and Lesley Joseph (the insatiable Dorien Green from Birds of a Feather) are among the talking heads waxing lyrical on why Mildred didn't get it from George, why Terry didn't get it from June, and why the charmless Mr Rigsby spent his life wooing Miss Jones.

Narrated by former pin-up Madeline Smith (Phillips's fellow Casanova actress), the programme also examines the impact of the sexual revolution on British and, the more daring, American sitcoms. It suggests that the liberation of The Liver Birds was brought about by the abortion law reform and the introduction of the contraceptive pill, and that the shedding of inhibitions over the decades that followed resulted in the likes of the taboo-busting Gimme Gimme Gimme. But it seems that there's a lot of laughs to be had from being unlucky in love, and producers are sticking with the formula: the leads of The Young Ones, Men Behaving Badly, Ab Fab and the more recent The Inbetweeners got no more sex than their ancestors.

Birds of a Feather to flock together in stage version

Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph are bringing the TV series that last aired almost 14 years ago to the theatre.