Goodnight Sweetheart special announced
- Goodnight Sweetheart is returning to screens with a special episode
- Nicholas Lyndhurst is to return as time-traveller Gary Sparrow
- The programme will be broadcast during Landmark Sitcom Season
The BBC has announced that hit sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart will return to screens.
Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, the comedy ran for six series on BBC One in the 1990s, following TV repairman Gary Sparrow's trips between contemporary London and the London of the Blitz after discovering a time portal.
Torn between hard-working 1990s wife Yvonne and 1940s love interest Phoebe, the show - written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran - eventually bowed out after 58 episodes in 1999, with Gary staying in wartime London when the portal is closed.
Now, as part of its upcoming Landmark Sitcom Season, celebrating television sitcom on the BBC, the show is to return for a one-off special.
Written again by Marks & Gran, the BBC say: "Gary Sparrow will face the consequences of his time travel and go somewhere he's never been before, as Goodnight Sweetheart is about to be catapulted into the 21st century."
The writers quip: "Gary has been trying for the last 17 years to find a way back to the present. Now he's found one, and he's asked us to turn it into a TV show, featuring much-loved old Goodnight Sweetheart friends and one or two new ones."
Explaining further on their blog, the duo add: "Gary's been marooned in the past since the end of the Second World War. It's now 1962 in Garyworld. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan is telling everyone they've never had it so good, but Gary can remember colour television and chicken tikka masala, so he's not convinced.
"But when he finds himself back in Today he quickly learns that the modern world has developed in ways he never imagined. Why is everyone talking to themselves? Why all the beards? When did the East End turn into the West End? Leicester City are premier league champions!?"
They add: "we hope the BBC will love it enough to ask for a series".
Shane Allen, the head of BBC comedy commissioning, says: "The whole sitcom season is geared towards giving comedy royalty their due recognition and in Goodnight Sweetheart we have heavyweight writing and performing talents reunited in this hugely popular and fondly remembered show. The conceptual update is sublime and it was heart-skipping stuff to read - it's an absolute belter."
Jon Rolph, executive producer of Goodnight Sweetheart for production company Retort adds: "I've long been keen to catch up with the life and various times of Gary Sparrow, so it's an absolute delight to see Goodnight Sweetheart take its place in the Landmark Sitcom Season."
Further casting details will be announced in coming weeks, with recording due to take place at the BBC's Salford studios in August. The original series saw actors of both the Yvonne and Phoebe roles change, and over its lifetime starred Dervla Kirwan, Christopher Ettridge, Victor McGuire, Michelle Holmes, Elizabeth Carling and Emma Amos.
The Landmark Sitcom Season was originally expected to begin airing this month, coinciding with the TV anniversary of Hancock's Half Hour, but is now scheduled to begin in September. November will mark the 60th anniversary of the broadcast of Britain's very first television sitcom, Pinwright's Progress.
The news follows the revival of multiple sitcoms in recent years, most notably Open All Hours as the smash-hit Still Open All Hours, and Marks & Gran's other great 1990s sitcom hit, Birds Of A Feather, making a highly successful move to ITV with a revitalised series.
Still Open All Hours has already been confirmed to be returning, and Birds Of A Feather is expected to be announced as recommissioned imminently. Meanwhile, the Landmark Sitcom Season will include one-off special revivals of classic comedies including Up Pompeii! and Are You Being Served?, whilst there are also new takes on Porridge and Keeping Up Appearances. Whilst none are pilots for new series, full commissions could follow if they prove popular with audiences.