Not the Nine O'Clock News

Available for over a year

Sue MacGregor reunites some of the team behind ‘Not The Nine O’clock News’, now known as one of the most successful British comedy series of the 1980s. But at the time of its inception, the programme got off to a very shaky start, and nervous BBC Executives withdrew the first episode from transmission. Ultimately, for inexperienced TV comedy Producers, John Lloyd and Sean Hardie, the decision turned out to be a welcome reprieve. But back in April 1979, they were by no means certain they would emerge with a popular comedy series. In the studio are John Lloyd, one of the founding producers, Rowan Atkinson, a rising comedy star and the first to be drafted into the team, Mel Smith, another comedian and comic partner to Griff Rhys Jones, Chris Langham, an established comic writer and performer, and Pamela Stephenson, the programme’s funny woman, recall their initial meetings, the rehearsals, endless re-writes and the controversial, offbeat comedy sketches that emerged from their improvisations. Producers: Christina Captieux and David Prest Series Producer: David Prest The Reunion is a Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4