Derren Litten
Derren Litten

Derren Litten

  • Actor, writer, director and executive producer

Press clippings Page 5

This one-off extension to the classic department store sitcom may have time-jumped to 1988 but it still feels old-fashioned, reheating the original formula of mild miscommunications against a backdrop of ladies' underthings. The script from Benidorm creator Derren Litten is elevated by a game cast - notably Jason Watkins as Mr Humphries - who clearly understand that when it comes to innuendo, you only get out as much as you put in.

Graeme Virtue, The Guardian, 28th August 2016

Are You Being Served serves more of the same

The old show was never a critics' favourite - despite our howls about these comedy rehashes being sacrilegious grave-robbing. But it had a kind of bravery; the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalising gay sex was within recent memory, and living together was still 'living in sin' in the provinces. Its knowing primness was clever - a huge wink to the fourth wall of the masses that although the outré characters seemed naughty, and Mr Humphries got into scrapes with a wide array of young men, he was never explicit about them. But the world has moved on - Kim Kardashian's bum failed to break the internet and against shows like Catastrophe, this looks more than passé.

Deborah Shrewsbury, The Custard TV, 28th August 2016

TV preview: Are You Being Served?, BBC1

So let's face it, this does nothing new but does the old thing pretty well.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 27th August 2016

Benidorm to return for Series 9

ITV has commissioned a ninth series of its sun-and-sand sitcom Benidorm.

British Comedy Guide, 22nd February 2016

New Are You Being Served? cast revealed

Jason Watkins, Jorgie Porter and Sherrie Hewson are amongst the stars of BBC's Are You Being Served? revival, it has been revealed.

British Comedy Guide, 22nd February 2016

Julie Graham talks about her new role in Benidorm

"From a female actor's point of view, nobody is writing female characters of a certain age anywhere except soaps. Derren Litten is the only writer on British television writing really great parts for older women."

Rick Fulton, Daily Record, 2nd January 2016

Joan Collins took Benidorm role as her sister is a fan

Joan Collins got a part in the hit comedy Benidorm because sister Jackie is a fan. Jackie, 77, took a box set to 81-year-old Joan's LA home. After watching it for four hours, a giggling Jackie rang creator Derren Litten.

The Mirror, 13th January 2015

There's a bit of a brutalist vibe about the Hotel Solana, the charmless edifice around which the action swings in Benidorm.

Derren Litten's sunburnt comedy closed its sixth run with a cast list that included Joan Collins, Janette Krankie, Rustie Lee and Mick from Brookside, not a line-up I thought I'd ever see in my lifetime.

Yet that bizarre bit of casting was as good as it got, because Benidorm is in need of a storyline on which to hang its rum collection of swingers, scallywags and Spaniards.

Collins made the most of her cameo as the Solana's boss, throwing a strop because manager Joyce had the temerity to get the hotel upgraded but the over-riding feeling was of characters treading water in the shallow end of the Solana's pool - someone needs to throw them a lifebelt because this show is sinking fast.

Keith Watson, Metro, 14th February 2014

I know Benidorm (ITV) has its admirers but every time I stagger through one of its sordid, sunburnt farces involving the worst of the Brits abroad, I feel like I need a good wash.

Writer Derren Litten has not messed with a formula that's about as subtle as a kick in the castanets - jokes about gruesome swingers 'releasing the beast' after swallowing a key don't get anywhere near my gag reflex. Having the karaoke singer perform Panic by The Smiths was a surreal if totally unbelievable touch, though.

Keith Watson, Metro, 3rd January 2014

Say hola! as Derren Litten's bawdy carnival returns for seven more weeks of fun in the sun. Solana regulars, the Garveys, check in - Madge already looking like she's been dipped in creosote, but with Mick detained at the airport. (Litten had to write around Steve Pemberton who was tied up on Whitechapel.)

The swingers are back, too ("Jacqueline and I have extraordinarily high gag reflexes," warns Donald) and take extreme action when hotel manager Joyce reneges on her promise of a free holiday.

And expect friction from new arrivals, the Dyke family from Watford. Brassy mum Tonya - don't ever call her Tanya - feels she's a cut above: "I wouldn't kennel my dog in this place."

Patrick Mulkern, Radio Times, 2nd January 2014

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