One Off TV Revival ideas

[JasonB]

I know they killed off the main character but I’d love a one off ‘One Foot in the Grave’ - the writing by David Renwick was always brilliant.

The ghost of Victor Meldrew, coming down and lamenting the state of things, as he haunts his loved ones?

Or they could do a Dallas and have Margaret wake up from a horrifying dream only to find Victor alive and well in the shower.

[soupie]

I know they killed off the main character but I’d love a one off ‘One Foot in the Grave’ - the writing by David Renwick was always brilliant.

The ghost of Victor Meldrew, coming down and lamenting the state of things, as he haunts his loved ones?

Or they could do a Dallas and have Margaret wake up from a horrifying dream only to find Victor alive and well in the shower.

People forget they did do a short special for Comic Relief after Victor had died (with a plot twist nicked from a Bruce Willis movie of the time).
https://youtu.be/4uhn-QmQ2rA

[tellyblues]

Give Us A Clue would offer something different from the usual general knowledge Q+A shows.

[octothorpe]

Re: My Family, Robert Lindsay said during an interview in the light of the series being added in full (well, excluding the Rolf Harris episode) to iPlayer when lockdown came in last spring, that (perhaps said in concert with Zoe Wanamaker) they'd only come back for a one-off special or something if Fred Barron wrote it; I agree with that, going through the series you can really tell which episodes he's had a part of, as they're much sharper and have a quicker pace than the others.

Back on topic, I just discovered the old ITV '90s series Cluedo yesterday over on the TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread and thought that that could be an interesting show to bring back, maybe as a stripped week event that ITV are keen on nowadays (one case a night or stretched across five), maybe bringing in a public element like interactive app voting or something. It could (and TBH, probably will) flop (and we know app voting formats are prone to disaster *cough*Don't Ask Me, Ask Britain*cough*The Singer Takes It All*cough*), but it's one format from the recent past that hasn't had a return in some way (though there was a C5 show a few Christmasses ago in a similar vein when they solved the murder themselves) so would have both a new audience tuning in out of curiosity and an older one who remember it to help it.

And kinda returning to My Family, I wonder if plans for another Outnumbered special will materialise. Like My Family, it seems to have been largely forgotten though has a bevy of fans of social media age to help it, which MF doesn't, as we saw in the reaction to the cast photos for the 2016 special. I saw suggestions they could've done something during lockdown, like a half-hour or so Zoom thing; Hugh and Claire being a couple and living together would've been rather convenient, though they would have had to explain away why the house didn't look the same! Plus, with it recently being sold I think another episode would likely be location-based like the last one; maybe based in a New Zealand(?) airport having visited Jake.

[Neil Jones]

Outnumbered is a case of if you do it with the original cast, you have the familiarity but you lose all the "out of the mouths of babes" thing that sparked the bulk of the memorable content (since the children are all grown up now ), but if you do it with a new family and a new set of children, who's to say it will still be funny. The producers may never be that lucky again as they were first time, especially if they can't come out with gems like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlB57ghalS0


It's a bit of damned if you do and damned if you don't with that show if it goes back into production. I love Outnumbered, it's one of my favourites but as I say I doubt it would be the same show if it came back again in that format with Hugh and Claire.

[octothorpe]

Outnumbered is a case of if you do it with the original cast, you have the familiarity but you lose all the "out of the mouths of babes" thing that sparked the bulk of the memorable content (since the children are all grown up now ), but if you do it with a new family and a new set of children, who's to say it will still be funny. The producers may never be that lucky again as they were first time, especially if they can't come out with gems like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlB57ghalS0


It's a bit of damned if you do and damned if you don't with that show if it goes back into production. I love Outnumbered, it's one of my favourites but as I say I doubt it would be the same show if it came back again in that format with Hugh and Claire.

I agree. You lose a lot of the spontaneity and the improvisation that made the early series so good. As the kids got older, episodes became a little more humdrum as they became the age where they're less straight out with what they say and not as naive as they were that resulted in nonsensical, zany moments like you've tagged in. In fact, that moment is one of the few that still makes me laugh out loud on re-watches. I think any future special may need to be limited to maybe half-an-hour or so, and I don't think they'd be able to get away with a video chat special anymore; plus, given it would probably be the final one they'd have to write it especially with that in mind.

---------

I'd also like to add to the One Foot in the Grave chat. I posted on another forum about this, where I suggested they could return for a one-off where they've both died, gone to heaven, but are basically in their living room carrying on as normal; the fact they're in heaven isn't revealed until the very end (camera pans out to show house/street is lying on a cloud, or something), and as a result creates the impression of a normal episode. There would be subtle hints throughout, though (e.g. Victor complaining about the state of politics 'down there', which we would automatically take to be Westminster). There's also the possibility you could have Margaret act uncomfortably (e.g. saying it's too cold and going to turn up the thermostat), perhaps us being shown her in heaven after she's just died or is currently doing so (basically, allowing her to be comfortable with where she's going before she actually does; also, if you went with this theory you could always go along with the concept of the episode just being her deathbed dream or something, and things getting a little more surreal as the episode progresses as a result, but that might be too morbid even for OFITG). The option for other characters popping in wouldn't be necessary, as it would be like one of the classic two-handers they did (and obviously given the setting wouldn't really work, unless you went with the dream framing). Not sure of what the episode would consist of beyond this framing, and whether given the ages and health of the two leading actors they could pull this off but as it would be one setting or something it would be rather simple to do.

[Multi]

Outnumbered is a case of if you do it with the original cast, you have the familiarity but you lose all the "out of the mouths of babes" thing that sparked the bulk of the memorable content (since the children are all grown up now ), but if you do it with a new family and a new set of children, who's to say it will still be funny. The producers may never be that lucky again as they were first time, especially if they can't come out with gems like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlB57ghalS0


It's a bit of damned if you do and damned if you don't with that show if it goes back into production. I love Outnumbered, it's one of my favourites but as I say I doubt it would be the same show if it came back again in that format with Hugh and Claire.

There’s always scope for Outnumbered to return one day - with its original “semi-unscripted” niche, with Jake, Karen and Ben’s children now taking centre stage.

[soupie]

Am I right in remembering that one of the flaws with the ITV Cluedo series was that every character had their murder episode in the series, so by the last episode you knew which one it was?

Also I remember Matthew Wright telling the story on his show once about how he attended the press launch (when doing Showbiz at the Mirror). He claims he said to Leslie Grantham (star of that particular series), ‘Well we know who the murderer is every week don’t we? It’s you’ (referring to Grantham’s earlier conviction). Grantham rose up and had to be restrained by fellow cast members.

[zenon]

My Family's predecessor 2.4 Children was so much better. It's a shame it's been rather forgotten.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with The Big Breakfast. TFI, Crystal Maze and 15 to 1 all made fun "one off's" but when they went to series the novelty quickly wore off and they were all quietly dropped without anyone really noticing.

TFI was only supposed to come back for one series and Channel 4 wanted to respect their decision.

[thebigdog2020]

I love Snooker so I loved Big Break growing up in the 1990s so would love a revival of that with a comedian like Lee Mack or Jason Manford. I think those two would also do a great job with the Generation Game.

Also was a big fan of The Bill so would love the revival of that to be true but don't see it to be honest.

[Whataday]

I'd love to see Drop The Dead Donkey return, although there would be a big Henry Davenport shaped hole in it now.

Perhaps a one off special with the rest of the cast reuniting at his memorial or something.

[JasonB]

Give Us A Clue would offer something different from the usual general knowledge Q+A shows.

As long as they still use that cheesy theme tune they had in the Parkinson era!

[Neil Jones]

Give Us A Clue would offer something different from the usual general knowledge Q+A shows.

As long as they still use that cheesy theme tune they had in the Parkinson era!

Surprising actually the whole concept of improvisation comedy hasn't returned yet over here - the likes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? for example. It ran for years initially, then was transplanted to the US, who then rebooted it 13 years later in near enough the same guise as the first reboot. Over here both versions have aired, but no sign of a UK broadcaster wanting to revive it. I suspect something like that must be dirt cheap to make, and its the sort of "witty banter" Dave bangs on about.

I think improvisational comedy (and theatre and whatever else) still happens in this country, just not on a high profile level. Indeed a few of the stars of Whose Line in America took the format on tour to relative success over there.

[smeg_head]

Is Wincey Willis still free to pop over and stick some arrows on a map?

Highly unlikely I'm afraid.