Ahead of the second season of 5’s rebooted version of Play for Today, Ben Frow, Chief Content Officer, UK, at Paramount, has revealed potential plans to also bring back Comedy Playhouse.
Like Play for Today, Comedy Playhouse was an anthology which ran on the BBC, originally between 1961 and 1975. A number of BBC sitcoms started life as one-off episodes and part of the anthology, like Steptoe and Son, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine.
Comedy Playhouse last returned to screens back in the 2010s, with the BBC bringing it back for three revival seasons in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Now, while explaining why he brought back Play for Today, which now operates as a format to promote new writers, Frow teased the comedy format could make a return on 5.
The cast of Last of the Summer Wine in the feature-length special, Getting Sam Home. BBC
“I wanted to do [Play for Today] because I wanted us to demonstrate that we are brave and very creative, and that not everything is just about money,” Frow said during a panel at Edinburgh TV Festival. “I suddenly thought, ‘Let’s do it if I can find the money.’ And they’re all made for £350,000 an hour, which is a very low cost, they attract fantastic talent, and they’re all really different.
“It’s like a smorgasbord. And then Seb [Cardwell, Head of Scripted, Paramount UK] had the brilliant idea of actually using it as a scheme in which to have new writers, new directors, new producers, so it’s done through [production companies] Vertigo [Films] and LA Productions, they sort of oversee it, but it’s all new talent coming up.
“And I think it’s probably the thing I’m most proud of in a way, even though it’s somebody else’s original idea, because I think it’s bang on the money in terms of public service broadcasting. It ticks my box in terms of creativity and ‘How adventurous can we be, and how ambitious can we be, and how surprising can we be?'”
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Frow continued: “There’s a rumour that we might be doing less drama. I think we will probably do less drama at 9pm… I think we will do more drama, and where that plays across the schedule, I think is part of the exciting thing.
“So, what would a drama be like at 7pm? Paul and I are talking about potentially bringing back something like Comedy Playhouse. We haven’t done a family comedy really. Could we? Would we? Should we? How would it be?
“Could we do a scheme that way where established comedy writers… Ben Elton wrote a very nice email saying he wants to write a Play for Today. He can’t write a Play for Today as that’s for new writers, but he could mentor a new comedy writer if we were to do a series of half-hour comedies, late night, something like that.”
Sky recently had a hit with its UK version of Saturday Night Live, proving there is an appetite for different comedy formats on British TV.
Of course, Frow’s comments do not mean that Comedy Playhouse is definitely returning, but comedy fans will no doubt be pleased to hear that there could be a new offering on the way.
Earlier this year, Play for Today unveiled the cast of its second season, with the likes of Archie Panjabi, Kacey Ainsworth, Daniel Mays, Phyllis Logan, Joel Fry and Amit Shah set to star in episodes.
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