Not Again: Not The Nine O'Clock News

BBC2 continues its pattern of making a new documentary as an excuse for airing repeats, although why they're only running one classic episode of Not The Nine O'Clock News is a puzzle. Surely a show of its calibre deserves more?

But at least the tribute show actually has the original cast in it and not just a series of C-list talking heads that werent actually alive when the show was made. Stars Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and Pamela Stephenson talk about the series that helped turn them into household names, as does producer John Lloyd.

Youd think the guy in charge would have kept his team in check but not John. Mel, Griff and I were the naughty boys, he recalls. Wed always go to the pub at lunch and Rowan would work on his scripts. Poor Rowan, the nerdy student who did his work while his mates got hammered. But at least it paved the way for him to turn into TVs ultimate dork, Mr Bean.

A painfully revealing episode of Radio 4's The Reunion in 2005 shed a bright light on some of the darker recesses of one of television's best-loved topical comedy shows. In this look back, producer and driving force John Lloyd talks again of the backbreaking effort that went into Not the Nine O'Clock News, first shown 30 years ago: "My memory was that it was a nightmare of overwork. I mean, everything was stressful. We used to be green with exhaustion." Not Again looks at a show that launched some great British comic performers, and also Richard Curtis, Clive Anderson and Andy Hamilton, who contributed to the scripts.