Peter Kay

The trailer for Vengeance Most Fowl opens with Gromit peering out of his curtains at a throng of locals and reporters. A crime wave is sweeping the town, with reports of stolen garden goods spiking. Wallace and his ‘Smart-Gnome’ Norbot are somehow the main suspects.

A reporter thrusts a microphone in the face of “evil inventor Mr Wallace,” which has him wondering, “who could possibly be behind all this?”

Cue the evil organ solo by Feathers McGraw, announcing his return in epic style before sipping, mockingly, from a ‘World’s Best Boss’ mug.

The popular comedy is written by and stars Sian Gibson and Peter Kay as supermarket employees John and Kayleigh who found themselves thrown together as part of the company car share scheme.

Originally launching on BBC iPlayer in 2015, the series was a huge success, becoming the most watched new sitcom since 2011. It also won Best Scripted Comedy at the BAFTA Television Awards, while Peter Kay took home an award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy.

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.