Benidorm off the hook over cleft palate joke

Ofcom is to take no action over complaints that Benidorm was 'grossly offensive' to people with cleft palates.

Benidorm under fire after complains of "cleft lip" joke

The remark, made by the character Joyce Temple-Savage, has sparked 118 complaints to the media regulator Ofcom.

More misunderstandings in the Spanish sun. Kenneth (Tony Maudsley) starts a taxi business by mistake, while Joyce (Sherrie Hewson) worries about her boss discovering that she can't speak Spanish, and Joey (Nathan Bryon) thinks a trip to Ibiza is free when it isn't. Mainly, though, we're wondering if randy wrinkly Nana Chase (former Brookside star Kate Fitzgerald) has really slept with a 20-year-old. It's fine, but it's half an hour of sitcom in an hour-long slot.

Preview - Benidorm

Joyce (Sherrie Hewson) thinks she's got lucky when she is invited to a conference in Barcelona but starts to panic when she realises she'll have to give her speech in Spanish.

The slightly sunburnt but enjoyably bawdy sitcom returns for a ninth series of outre poolside hijinks. Former hard-partying holidaymaker Sam (Shelley Longworth) rocks back up at the Solana, this time as an ambitious rep, causing friction with highly strung hotel manager Joyce (Sherrie Hewson). Meanwhile, Nigel Havers guest-stars as a dentist who, after a trim at the Blow'n'Go salon, fixates on the late Herbert's dazzling false gnashers.

Talks of crossover between Mrs Brown's Boys & Benidorm

Sherrie Hewson says there have been talks about a crossover featuring the characters of Benidorm and Mrs Brown's Boys.

Sherrie Hewson and Jake Canuso interview

Last summer, I paid my second visit to the set of hit ITV comedy Benidorm and spoke to the show's wonderful cast including Sherrie Hewson and Jake Canuso.

Are You Being Served? (BBC1) review

The episode may have seemed cut-short, being wrapped up just as a plot was begin to take form, but this was an otherwise perfectly-pitched remake of an audience classic. One would have struggled to think of a writer better qualified to bring back Are You Being Served?, and I would be incredibly surprised if it didn't follow in the footsteps of Still Open All Hours and were not at least considered for a more permanent return.

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.