Comedy Playhouse: Where It All Began. Copyright: BBC
Comedy Playhouse: Where It All Began

Comedy Playhouse: Where It All Began

  • TV documentary
  • BBC One
  • 2014
  • 1 episode

A documentary looking back at the original BBC Comedy Playhouse pilot strand, featuring contributions from some of those involved. Features Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, June Whitfield, Paul Merton, Hugh Dennis and more.

Press clippings

An idea pioneered by the BBC, lately adopted by Sky, and now back again on the BBC, Comedy Playhouse was an exciting notion: a kind of "try before you buy" test on potential new comedy series. Originally created as a way for Tony Hancock's writers Alan Galton and Ray Simpson to spread their wings beyond East Cheam, the series spawned Last Of The Summer Wine and more Galton & Simpson gold in Steptoe And Son. This doc features the pair as talking heads alongside stalwarts such as June Whitfield.

John Robinson, The Guardian, 29th April 2014

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