Lost Sitcoms

Lost Sitcoms: Hancock's Half Hour preview

It holds up so well that some lines seem to have been injected just for wry 21st-century nostalgia: Hancock being impressed by the size of the newcomers' TV screen: 'It must be all of eight inches,' he says enviously.

TV preview: Lost Sitcoms - Hancock's Half Hour, BBC4

Stone me this is good. I was a little bit worried about this TV recreation of a lost Hancock episode because last week's Alf Garnett reboot was so disappointing. But there is no problem here. A combination of excellent casting and excellent writing makes this easily as funny as most contemporary sitcoms.

And so, with a sigh but not quite the desuetude expected, to the BBC's retro week. Both Are You Being Served?, wrongly described everywhere as "one of Britain's best-loved sitcoms", and Porridge were better than anticipated. Jason Watkins in particular as Mr Humphries turned in a searing performance, but doesn't he always? And Porridge was almost a delight, if only to feel the warm ghost of Ronnie Barker. Till Death Us Do Part, never funny in the first place, was execrable. Don't get me at all wrong, but what's even the point of Alf Garnett without the racism?

A good and faithful stab, BBC, at exhumation, but please now stop. Because Britain, and the world, can do better comedy now. I offer sample lines, from The Simpsons and from last week's revamped Served.

Editor (seeking a restaurant critic): "You know, Homer, we need someone like you... someone who doesn't immediately pooh-pooh everything he eats." Homer: "Nah, usually takes me a few hours."

Young, updated Mr Grace: "I've just had a cappuccino, followed by a massive brownie." Mr Rumbold: "Well, I hope you flushed it twice; that cistern has a mind of its own." These are both jokes about human faeces. Only one is funny.

Re-record, not fade away: The Lost Sitcoms strand resurrects wiped BBC classics by remaking them from the original scripts. That means "new" episodes of Steptoe and Son and Hancock's Half Hour, but first up is Simon Day channelling Warren Mitchell as bigoted cockney foghorn Alf Garnett, howling at the cosmos after being denied his dinner. It's followed by a doc exploring the ambiguous appeal of Alf, the original problematic fave.

Watching unPC sitcoms should be part of the curriculum

The BBC's remakes of Till Death Us Do Part and Are You Being Served? are only to be appreciated through the filter of irony. But things like It Ain't Half Hot Mum weren't malicious.

Till Death Us Do Part preview

Tightened budgets are cutting deep at the BBC. They can't even afford sets with walls for their season of Lost Sitcoms...

The Lost Sitcoms: Till Death Us Do Part - review

While there were some laughs, especially in the phone box scenes in which lines get crossed, the episode did feel at times rather pedestrian. You get the feeling that of all the episodes the BBC could have picked to remake, this was one of the lesser ones.

TV preview: Till Death Us Do Part, BBC4

Are you ready for a cross between Festen and Mrs Brown's Boys? This is the weirdest contribution to the Landmark Sitcom Season yet. BBC4 has recreated a lost episode of the 1960s Alf Garnett sitcom Till Death Us Do Part using Johnny Speight's surviving script. And as they say on the internet, when you watch it your jaw will hit the floor.

Preview: Till Death Us Do Part

Unfortunately, this outdated set-up works against the production, reminding audiences how much our day to day lives have changed in 40 years - and not just with the advent of mobile phones and, dare we say it, Just Eat and Deliveroo.

Are we being well-served by elderly sitcoms remakes?

Even if the old jokes still amuse some, Aidan Smith finds the BBC's celebration of its comedy classics far from funny.