7.4 /10 1 Votes
5.3/10 TV Country of origin United Kingdom First episode date 15 December 1961 Number of episodes 121 | 9.4/10 IMDb Starring Various Original network BBC One Final episode date 9 July 1975 Networks BBC, BBC One | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No. of episodes 121 (as of 29 April 2014) Running time Usually 25 minutes, 30 minutes or 35 minutes Picture format 405-line Black-and-white (1961–67)
625-line Black-and-white (1968–69)
625-line PAL (1970–75)
1080i HDTV (2014–) Cast John Cleese, Joanna Lumley Spin-offs Steptoe and Son, Last of the Summer Wine, Are You Being Served?, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters Similar Steptoe and Son, Last of the Summer Wine, Till Death Us Do Part, Are You Being Served?, Up Pompeii! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comedy playhouse 1961 ep 14 01 no strings
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 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 Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.
Contents
- Comedy playhouse 1961 ep 14 01 no strings
- Up pompeii comedy playhouse 1969
- Background
- Series One 196162
- Series Three 196364
- Series Four 1965
- Series Five 1966
- Series Eight 1969
- Series Nine 196970
- Series Eleven 1971
- Series Twelve 1972
- Specials 1973
- Series Fourteen 1974
- Series Seventeen 2016
- Scottish Comedy Playhouse
- References
In March 2014, it was announced that Comedy Playhouse would make a return that year with three new episodes.
Up pompeii comedy playhouse 1969
Background
The series began in 1961 at the prompting of Tom Sloan, Head of BBC Light Entertainment at the time. Galton and Simpson were no longer writing for Tony Hancock and Sloan asked them to write ten one-offs with the hope that one might become established as a series. Thus, the first two series of Comedy Playhouse were written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, but after that the episodes were written by various writers. In all, 27 series started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse. The first eight series were in black-and-white, with the rest being in colour. Like many television programmes from the time, many of 1960s episodes are missing presumed wiped.
Series One (1961–62)
The pilot episode of Steptoe and Son was broadcast as an episode.
Series Three (1963–64)
The pilot episodes of The Walrus and the Carpenter and Meet the Wife were broadcast as episodes.
Series Four (1965)
The pilot episode of Till Death Us Do Part was broadcast as an episode.
Series Five (1966)
The pilot episodes of All Gas and Gaiters and Beggar My Neighbour were broadcast as episodes.
Series Eight (1969)
The pilot episode of The Liver Birds was broadcast as an episode.
Series Nine (1969–70)
The pilot episode of Up Pompeii! was broadcast as an episode.
Series Eleven (1971)
Series eleven began with Just Harry and Me starring Sheila Hancock, Donald Houston and Lynne Frederick. The series was broadcast in two sections, the first of six episodes, then a break, followed by another seven episodes. 26 scripts were short-listed and this was pared down to 13. The series included It's Awfully Bad for Your eyes, Darling, which was co-authored by Jilly Cooper and was her first writing for television. Other episodes included René Basilico's Uncle Tulip, that featured three generations of a Sikh family, and The Rough with the Smooth written by and starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and John Junkin.
Series Twelve (1972)
The first episode of Are You Being Served? was broadcast as an episode.
Specials (1973)
The first episode of the longest-running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine was broadcast in an episode.
Series Fourteen (1974)
The pilot episodes of Happy Ever After (1974–79) and Mr Big (1977) were broadcast as episodes.
Series Seventeen (2016)
Comedy playhouse returns for another run with three episodes.
Scottish Comedy Playhouse
The BBC aired six comedy pilots in 1970 in Scotland only under the title Scottish Comedy Playhouse, none of which developed onto a full series. While these were being aired, Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast in the rest of the UK. The episodes were
- Stand In For A Hearse (22 September 70)
- The Siege of Castle Drumlie (29 September 70)
- The Dinner Party (20 October 70)
- To Grace A Son (28 October 70)
- Stobo Takes The Chair (3 November 70)
- Take Your Partners (10 November 70)