Comedy Playhouse (series 12)

Last updated

The twelfth series of Comedy Playhouse , the long-running BBC series, aired during 1972, with the last two episode being used as fillers due to the Munich massacre.

Contents

Background

The twelfth series, which was in colour, consisted of seven episodes, each of which had a different cast and storyline. The pilot episode of Are You Being Served? was intended to be broadcast early in the year but the BBC chose not to broadcast it, and was not transmitted, until the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics necessitated that it was used as a filler.

Episodes

TitleAirdateDurationOverviewIMDb link
Idle at Work14 January 197230 mins
And Whose Side Are You On?21 January 197230 mins
Born Every Minute28 January 197230 mins
The Dirtiest Soldier in the World27 March 197230 minsAn adaptation of one story in George MacDonald Fraser's The General Danced At Dawn.
No Peace on the Western Front30 August 197230 minsSet in the First World War, starred Warren Mitchell as a German soldier.
Weren't You Marcia Honeywell?7 September 197230 mins
Are You Being Served? 8 September 197230 minsNot originally intended to be broadcast, the BBC screened it to fill a gap in the schedules due to the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics. Became a very long-running programme.

Related Research Articles

<i>Till Death Us Do Part</i> British television sitcom (1965–1975)

Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom for six episodes, calling it Till Death.... The BBC produced a sequel from 1985 until 1992, In Sickness and in Health.

A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.

<i>Up Pompeii!</i> British TV sitcom (1969–1991)

Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series set in ancient Pompeii and broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991 and a film adaptation was released in 1971.

<i>Are You Being Served?</i> British TV sitcom (1972–1985)

Are You Being Served? is a British television sitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. Croft also served as executive producer and director. Michael Knowles and John Chapman also wrote certain episodes. Produced by the BBC, the series starred Mollie Sugden, Trevor Bannister, Frank Thornton, John Inman, Wendy Richard, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, Larry Martyn, Harold Bennett and Arthur English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bird (actor)</span> English actor (1936–2022)

John Michael Bird was an English actor, director, writer and satirist. He performed in the television satire boom of the 1960s, appearing in That Was the Week That Was. His television work included many appearances with John Fortune. Bird had an acting career in film, television, theatre and radio for over 55 years. He appeared in films including Take A Girl Like You (1970) and Jabberwocky (1977) as well as in television shows such as Joint Account, Marmalade Atkins, El C.I.D. and Chambers. He and Fortune also starred with Rory Bremner in the sketch show Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1993–2010), on Channel 4, which was nominated for BAFTA TV Awards.

<i>Steptoe and Son</i> British TV sitcom (1962–1974)

Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and white from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974 in colour. The lead roles were played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).

<i>All Gas and Gaiters</i> British TV sitcom (1966–1971)

All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of John Wraith when writing the pilot. All Gas and Gaiters was also broadcast on BBC Radio from 1971 to 1972.

The 10%ers is a British television comedy series, broadcast on ITV.

<i>Comedy Playhouse</i> 1961–1975 British television series

Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 128 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sallis</span> English actor (1921–2017)

Peter John Sallis was an English actor. He was known for his work on British television. He was the voice of Wallace in the Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit films and played Norman "Cleggy" Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine from its 1973 inception until the final episode in 2010, making him the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes. Additionally, he portrayed Norman Clegg's father in the prequel series First of the Summer Wine.

<i>La Linea</i> (TV series) Italian cartoon (1971-86)

La Linea is an Italian animated series created by the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli. The series consists of 90 episodes, which were originally broadcast on the Italian channel RAI between 1971 and 1986. The background tune for the series was created by Franco Godi.

<i>Terry and June</i> British TV sitcom (1979–1987)

Terry and June is a BBC television sitcom, broadcast on BBC1 from 1979 to 1987. The show was largely a reworking of Happy Ever After, and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as a middle-aged, middle-class suburban couple, Terry and June Medford, who live in Purley.

Filler is material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television or radio time slot or physical medium, such as a music album.

The first series of Comedy Playhouse, that continued to be a long-running BBC series, broadcast from 15 December 1961 to 16 February 1962. All the episodes were written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

The Ronnie Barker Playhouse was a series of six comedy half hours showcasing the talents of Ronnie Barker. All were broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion in 1968.

The second series of Comedy Playhouse, the long-running BBC series, aired from 1 March 1963 to 12 April 1963. All the episodes were written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

The Brighton Belles is a short-lived British sitcom, based on the hit American sitcom The Golden Girls. The programme consisted of 11 episodes, which were broadcast from 1993 until 1994, being pulled halfway through its run due to very poor ratings.

<i>Thirty-Minute Theatre</i> British television drama series (BBC, 1965–1973)

Thirty-Minute Theatre was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was produced initially by Harry Moore, later by Graeme MacDonald, George Spenton-Foster, Innes Lloyd and others. Thirty-Minute Theatre began on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parson's Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9 (1966), which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective (1986). In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.

Hospital People is a British mockumentary series set in the fictional Brimlington Hospital in the fictional town of Brimlington. The main star of the programme is Tom Binns who plays four different characters in the series. He has a supporting cast of another three actors with guest stars filling in the other roles on an episode-by-episode basis. A pilot episode was shown on BBC One in February 2016, from which a whole series was commissioned and then broadcast in 2017.

References