Nicholas Lyndhurst's sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart could return
The writers behind Nicholas Lyndhurst's sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart have confirmed the TV show could return for the right offer revealing the cast "would probably say yes" to filming a one-off special.
The cast of Nicholas Lyndhurst's sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart "would probably say yes" to filming one final episode.
The sitcom aired on BBC One between 1993 and 1999 and starred Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas as accidental time traveller Gary Sparrow, who uses a time portal to lead a double life with two women – his wife Yvonne in 1990s London and barmaid Phoebe in 1940s London as World War II rages. Now writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran have revealed they would happily bring the show back for a one-off special to conclude the story if they were given the right offer.
According to The Sun newspaper, Laurence said: "If we were asked by the BBC ‘would you do a one-off’ and we rang Nic and the girls, they would probably say yes.
"But they’d want to know that they’re playing the ages they are. We would only do it if we had our cast."
Maurice added: "If anyone on TV suddenly found a few million quid they want to find a home for then we could make it."
The series ended in 1999 but it was resurrected in 2016 for a one-off special, titled Many Happy Returns, as part of the BBC’s Landmark Sitcom Season, attracting almost five million viewers.
The writers already have the material for another special as they have written the final episode of the show as a novel.
The book - titled Goodnight Sweetheart: Many Happy Returns - is due for release in May and picks up just before the events of the 2016 special, which was set in the spring of 1962, when Marilyn Monroe sang at President Kennedy’s birthday party.
The famous rendition of Happy Birthday has ramifications for Gary as when he first met his wartime sweetheart Phoebe, he told her the girl he left behind in Los Angeles was called Marilyn Monroe.
Marks and Gran are responsible for writing some of Britain's best loved TV sitcoms, including The New Statesman and Birds of a Feather as well as comedy drama series Love Hurts.
Maurice previously revealed it was the BBC's decision to commission the Goodnight Sweetheart special to celebrate 60 years of comedy that inspired him and co-creator Laurence to come up with new ideas for the characters.
He said: “In 2016 we were asked to revive it. The BBC were doing a number of tributes to classic comedy.
"We found a way to bring him back again, which I thought was quite fun and it was a good show, it was a well received show. Unfortunately the BBC decided they didn’t want to do a series of it which was extremely annoying, because we had the whole cast and they were really up for it, Nick was up for it.
"It was great and it made us think that maybe we’ll do something in another medium because we had a lot of good ideas for it."
