ITV buys the rights to Birds Of A Feather from BBC
Rui_Phillips
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CLASSIC sitcom Birds Of A Feather is returning to TV after 15 years — with all three of its original stars.
But the 1990s show, which for nine years pulled in audiences of more than 20million for the BBC, will make its comeback on rival ITV.
Actresses Pauline Quirke, 53, and Linda Robson, 55, will start filming eight new episodes in September with co-star Lesley Joseph.
The show’s creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran originally approached the BBC — which axed the comedy in 1998 — with the idea of reviving it.
But Beeb bosses only wanted to make a Christmas special.
ITV saw its chance to stage a coup and waded in, offering to make a whole series. That clinched the deal.
An ITV insider said: “The idea has been kicking around for a while and all the cast were up for it. Top brass heard that the writers had only been offered a one-off special at the BBC, so they decided to strike.
“The scripts are great and still crackling with the kind of gags that made it such a big success all those years ago.
“It’s all very hush-hush right now but ITV are delighted that they’ve managed to land it.”
The show ran on the BBC for 102 episodes. It centres on two sisters — hard-up Sharon and well-off Tracey (Quirke and Robson) — who set up home with each other after their husbands are both jailed for armed robbery.
Actress Lesley plays their man-eating neighbour Dorien Green.
The three stars reunited last year for a successful stage version of the show, sparking interest from telly producers.
Lesley, 67, said recently: “People remember Birds Of A Feather so fondly because it didn’t tail off at the end — the standard of the scripts didn’t deteriorate.
“None of us would want to make a new series that was below standard.”
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So they will either ignore the events that happened in the stage show or find some way round it.
Whatever they do it will great to see them back.
The Yes Prime Minister series on GOLD effectively just expanded the story arc from the stage play, so there is no reason why they might not do the same for the itv revival of Birds.
I think it can work and perhaps a complete break from the BBC is the key to it working. They're three funny actresses and whatever they do together should work in some form. They've proved that with the stage show. I think it's worth giving them a chance. The key will be to not dwell on the past and perhaps go in a brand new direction with the show.
That said, I wish ITV well with the series. It holds fond memories of the 90's so I will tune in to see if the magic that was lost in the last couple of series' has returned. Sometimes things are best to be left well remembered. But perhaps there is enough interest to warrant a full return. Either that or Joseph and Robson are skint.
What's Heading Out?
But they have had success with Miranda and Mrs. Browns' Boys. And Not Going Out got more viewers than ITV's Vicious and The Job Lot. Plus Citizen Khan gets a steady 3.5 million at 10.35pm. So the BBC are not in dire need of a sitcom as much as ITV.
If I were ITV, I'd play this one clever - have the much hyped and anticipated returning episode as an hour long Xmas special on Xmas Day (instead of more You've Been Framed!) pitched up against BBC's 9pm Comedy Special.
Follow this up with episode 1 of the new series on New Years Day then every week until the end of it's run.
In the meantime between now & then, repeat the classic episodes on ITV3 - Carlton Select used to broadcast them & it's not an in-house BBC production so it should be easy to repeat, and hasn't been repeated in fiull for years.
Wonder if Matthew Savage will return as Garth....& I wonder which actors they'll choose to play Darryl & Chris if they are written back in...
It was commissioned and paid for by the BBC and was recorded at TV Centre. But I do think there are reasons why the BBC only wanted a Christmas special (initially). They wanted a pilot of Yes Prime Minister too. But the writers threw their toys out the pram and took it to GOLD. And that was crap!
I like the three actresses but I think I'd rather watch repeats of the original episodes!
The only way they could pull it off is if they go the way The Golden Girls did with Blanche. The trick in having an 'old' promiscuous character is to not have her dress like a tart (as Dorien used to), and to have her antics merely alluded to rather than seen. It's also essential that they don't give her lines which are too vulgar.
It was never earth-shatteringly funny stuff, but a gentle enough way to spend half an hour - mainly through the good cast rather than good writing. It ran out of steam before it finished, though. I guess the success of this revival depends on whether the writers have come up with anything good in their time off the air.
Surely the current Tory Gov and Rupert M would make great targets.
You're probably spot on. And no room in their quality scheduling to fit it in between the likes of Homes Under The Hammer, Bargain Hunt, Escape to the Country, Rip Off Britain, The Cowboy Trap, The One Show.....