Gold

Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes will recreate three episodes of the classic sitcom Dad’s Army that were lost from the archive.

The series will celebrate 50 years since the first broadcast of the original episodes, written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, who devised the idea for Dad’s Army back in the 1960s.

In the original series, which ran from 1968 until 1977, Arthur Lowe played Captain Mainwaring, the pompous bank manager-turned-leader of the local group of Home Guards during the Second World War.

Airing this Christmas on Gold, the three-part documentary will feature over an hour’s worth of footage never seen before in the UK. Ross explores the duo’s working relationship and a series of trips they made to appear on one of the USA’s largest variety shows, The Ed Sullivan Show.

The pair were watched by as many as “60 million people” on The Ed Sullivan Show which was also credited with helping The Beatles crack America.

Following on from the success of Murder on the Blackpool Express in 2017 – the most watched show ever on Gold, Vegas and Gibson are back as Terry and Gemma in Death on the Tyne.

Speaking to the RTS earlier this year, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning, Richard Watsham praised the hit comedy, “Murder on the Blackpool Express was an extraordinarily successful show, It absolutely smashed the audience ratings for Gold.”

UKTV, an independent joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Network Interactive Inc, announced a consolidated share of commercial viewership of 9.87% - a 7.7% increase on 2015.

According to the broadcaster, that puts UKTV ahead of Channel 5’s portfolio and all of Sky’s wholly-owned channels.

UKTV Play, the broadcaster's on-demand service is their fastest growing brand, with an increase of 74% in direct-to-consumer views year on year.

The show follows the career of some of our best loved celebrities from the world of comedy and showbiz.

Narrated by Tamsin Greig (Episodes, Friday Night Dinner), this series will look at the lives of comic actor Peter Sellers, the incorrigible Frankie Howerd, Barry Humphries and his larger-than-life alter ego Dame Edna Everage, king of Saturday night Sir Bruce Forsyth, comedy great Kenny Everett, and much loved national treasure Julie Walters.

The classic sitcom no longer rules the TV schedules in the way that shows such as Fawlty Towers, Open All Hours and Porridge did in the 1970s. Or does it?

A panel of TV practitioners attempted to tease out the answer last month at an RTS early-­evening event, “No laughing matter: how does comedy fight back?” This stimulating debate made one think that we could be living through another golden age of TV comedy without necessarily knowing it.

Plans to put BBC Three online could rob a new generation of comedy writers and performers of the opportunity to find an audience, said Jessica Knappett, creator of E4 sitcom Drifters.

Knappett, who writes and stars in the series said: "I feel like BBC Three going online is a door closing, it's an opportunity that's been taken away from me. I feel personally it's exactly the sort of channel I would write for and I found it difficult enough to get an audience on E4."

​UKTV has announced the three new scripted comedies for its comedy channel, Gold.

Henry IX, Marley's Ghosts and Bull are the first of five scripted comedy shows for the channel, which is seeking to balance its slate of classic British sitcoms with new programming.