BBC passes on new Two Pints

[Malcy]

There was supposed to be a new one-off called 'Last Orders' potentially leading to another series but apparently the BBC has bailed at the last minute.

However, a show insider has now told British Comedy Guide that the BBC has passed on the script.

They said: "The BBC wanted to do an evening of flagship BBC 3 shows to relaunch the channel but decided they couldn't think of any others. [Series creator] Susan Nickson had penned a wonderfully funny script and both Ralf and Will were on board and very enthusiastic, as had been previous comedy commissioning boss Shane Allen, but now they've ditched the whole project."

Development of the sequel began in 2019 but interest grew significantly earlier this year after a special sketch marking the sitcom's 20th anniversary, launched by British Comedy Guide and Will and Ralf's hit podcast Two Pints With Will & Ralf, garnered more than 5 million views online within hours of publication.

By contrast, current BBC television comedy rarely attracts views of 5 million across a whole series combined.

Speaking exclusively to British Comedy Guide today, Susan Nickson confirmed: "The BBC saw the figures for the clip we filmed for the fans. [Chief Content Officer] Charlotte Moore told me: 'Two Pints Of Lager is a really important show for us' and they asked me to write them a script. They accepted it and then suddenly backed out. Just another waste of licence payer's money on something that would have been a success for them - oh well."

The insider added: "The BBC relicensed Two Pints in summer 2018 to put the whole series on iPlayer. We had previously been told it was the best performing box set on the whole platform, and they keep extending that licence so it's clearly got a huge audience that even the BBC can't deny when they're really interested."

Meanwhile, Mellor and Little's chat podcast, launched in April 2020, has run for two series to date and charted more than 40 million views for its associated videos alone. The third series will be recorded in January and February 2022 during a national live tour, tickets for which sold out within a week of going on sale.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/6656/no-two-pints-sequel/

With BBC3 becoming a proper airing channel and planning a big relaunch and celebrating it's flagship shows then why don't they air all the stuff the channel is known for from around the same time? Monkey Dust, Burn It, Catterick, there's so many. And it would be great to finally be able to see shows like Grease Monkeys again which just aren't available anywhere at all.

What really is the reason for making BBC3 a channel again anyway?

Enjoyed 2 Pints at the time but wasn't as fussed in the later years.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I'd imagine the higher ups were asking themselves if a new episode of an old sitcom with a cast and writer in their 40s is the best way to relaunch a youth-targeted channel.

If you're going to do a new episode of Two Pints, surely BBC2 is the most logical destination?

[Gulftastic]

2 Pints was dogshit and lead to Grown Ups. Hope it never returns.

[mippy]

Also Coming Of Age.

[Rolf Lundgren]

I'm impressed they've sold out a live tour for a podcast of it. Best performing boxset on iPlayer seems mad too. Had no idea it was so popular and must be a no-brainer to do another show if there's an audience for it right now. With those kind of numbers I'd agree just stick it on BBC2.

[Steven88]

I liked two pints up to series 6, I stopped watching when Ralf Little left. I'm actually rewatching them at the minute, it's crude and a bit iffy in places these days but still enjoyable. They killed Johnny off so I don't know how they'd actually bring it back.

[H-O-W-L]

Yeah I remember watching most of Two Pints as it aired (I've mentioned before that most of my formative years involved spacing out with BBC3 in the background while playing Half-Life 2 and The Sims 2) and I can't remember much truly rum content -- it was mostly just crude sex stuff.

There's probably stuff that has aged horrendously of course, and I'm not willing to die on its hill, but it was honestly harmless silage from all I remember-- completely forgettable 2000s wallpaper, but not the death of all comedy and all light in the universe as we know it, like it's often spoken about here. And definitely, definitely not representative of teenagers/THE YOUTH of its era. Even when I was a teen and it was on I was like "Fucking hell this is some 70s shit" at times.

It did also introduce the world to Sheridan Smith though and doubtlessly got her the deluge of later, more worthy roles.

Coming of Age and Grown Ups were, however, complete and utter irredeemable shit however. Even as its supposed target market, Coming of Age infuriated me whenever it came on. I can't overstate just how shit that show is.

[Malcy]

I'm impressed they've sold out a live tour for a podcast of it. Best performing boxset on iPlayer seems mad too. Had no idea it was so popular and must be a no-brainer to do another show if there's an audience for it right now. With those kind of numbers I'd agree just stick it on BBC2.

I was too but the stuff they had put up and the 2 Pints sketch especially did good numbers.

BBC3 could do well to ignore the demographic it goes after at the moment. Desperately trying to attract the youth with shows about influencers etc. Just stop. If you want to celebrate the channel then recognise what made it.

I know at times there are problems which prevents repeats like in the case of Burn It, my favourite show from the channel which never got repeats or a DVD release due to music rights, but think of all those shows BBC3 put it out that only get rewatched due to niche torrent sites. I'm lucky to have access but it's like the 50th anniversary of BBC2 when they made a show of clips saying "look at all the unreleased shit we have" instead of actually releasing the full things!

[Malcy]

I liked two pints up to series 6, I stopped watching when Ralf Little left. I'm actually rewatching them at the minute, it's crude and a bit iffy in places these days but still enjoyable. They killed Johnny off so I don't know how they'd actually bring it back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wftCXlRlFM

I vaguely remember when he left and thought 'eh'? thought he would appear before the end but didn't until that video.

[H-O-W-L]

BBC3 could do well to ignore the demographic it goes after at the moment. Desperately trying to attract the youth with shows about influencers etc. Just stop. If you want to celebrate the channel then recognise what made it.

As a former big fan of BBC3 (and still in the 18-35 age bracket they aimed at) I agree wholly. I'd actually fucking tune in for that and I haven't watched live-broadcast telly in maybe ten years now.

Honor shit like Him & Her for piss' sake! That show was really fucking good.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Last Orders seems like it should be a sequel to Early Doors.

If they wanted to bring anything back, it should have been 15 Storeys High, but it's obviously too late for that now, sadly.

[shoulders]

2Pints was a fairly early example of evidence that to make a successful comedy show that resonates with a mass audience you don't need to make a show that's actually notably funny.

Develop a set of familiar characters that bumble through some general mirth that feels like an affectionate non-sneery pastiche of people's real lives. Low maintenance comedy of recognition with a cannily chosen cast.

Shows like Gimme Gimme Gimme look ridiculously try hard, overly broad and slightly sneery at doing what 2Pints makes look almost effortless. There's a skill to writing that and to identifying why it would work.

Purely from a comedy work, a piece of art to get laughs from, sorry, but it was pretty shit.

[purlieu]

It always had a few decent gags per episode and, yes, had no pretensions. I'd also much rather watch it than a hell of a lot of the stuff I've seen in recent years and, y'know, So Haunt Me and Next of Kin. It's also less sickening than something like Gavin & Stacy. So I give it a pass of being perfunctory. Quite remarkable that the BBC have decided such a huge audience-grabber is below them.

[Ja'moke]

Can they bring back Ideal instead?

[thecuriousorange]

Is it really the only BBC 3 success that they could have held up for this anniversary? It says above they simply didn't have enough for a celebration.

[TheBrownBottle]

Honestly, I genuinely thought it was one of those filler shows which attracted viewers because it was on at the right time for a late teens / early 20s post-pub audience.  A sitcom version of The Word, with the same production values.  Does 'post-pub' telly even exist anymore to offer this any viewers?

I didn't realise anyone actually thought it was anything but badly-written, poorly-performed shite.  I stand corrected, it seems.

[turnstyle]

As a young comedy nerd at the time, I always despised this show back in the day.

The jokes were always the laziest, hackiest shit, and the characters were about as fully formed as Flat Stanley.

Naturally being hugely into comedy at the time, I was one of those people who would write scripts and send them off to production companies, unsolicited, only for a never ending stream of rejections. When this warmed through dog shit used to appear on telly, I always took it personally, especially as so much was made of its young writer.

Brooker's spoof was spot on.

[Billy]

I genuinely thought Bumming Off was real for the first 35 seconds or so, until I realised the clip was going on a bit long to illustrate the point and clocked that it was a Brooker pisstake. Genuinely did seem like a real shit(peas) BBC3 dirge.

[Pauline Walnuts]

[tag] I wouldn't Piss on new Two Pints [/tag]

[jobotic]

I didn't realise anyone actually thought it was anything but badly-written, poorly-performed shite.  I stand corrected, it seems.

Same here. I always thought "Two Pints" was shorthand for lazy garbage TV comedy.

[Dickie_Anders]

That's a shame. I was looking forward to auditioning for and ultimately getting the leading role of Barry McLagerLad. I'd get to pretend I drank beer and had sex with loads of women while in real life I'm a virgin who drinks Robinson's Summer Fruits

[Zetetic]

Think @H-O-W-L and @shoulders are pretty fair to it. As something to fill a bit more of the void when you're both depressed and concentrating, as much you're able to, on some other distraction then I remember it as tolerable background noise with occasional moments of elevation, mostly thanks to Little and Smith. The act of remembering makes me feel a bit nauseous - that's not wholly on Two Pints, but it fits.

[robhug]

I've got a serious aversion to Wilma Law's face, so I'm delighted its been shelved.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Is it really the only BBC 3 success that they could have held up for this anniversary? It says above they simply didn't have enough for a celebration.

Problem is, most of the big shows have moved or been repeated on BBC1 or BBC2 or the creators have moved on. We're hardly going to be getting new Gavin & Stacey or Little Britain and even if we did, it'd be for BBC1

[Catalogue Trousers]

It was a 'wonderfully funny' script, key players were apparently very enthusiastic about it...but the Beeb decided not to make it?

That explanation is a master class in Diplomacy. The more honest assessment?

It was a big pile of shit and nobody wanted it except Nickson.

[turnstyle]

What happened to Nickson?

According to IMDB the last thing they worked on was the Birds of a Feather reboot in 2015/16.

Outside of Two Pints and Grown Ups, they haven't really worked on anything else (which might be understandable as there were 783 episodes of Two Pints alone).

[JamesTC]

Two Pints was popular throughout its whole life with a demographic that is notoriously difficult to reach. I think it is far more deserving of respect than something like Mrs Brown's Boys which reaches an audience who are already catered for elsewhere, even if it is easy to write them both off for much the same reasons.

With BBC Three being off-air for so long, it may be that it doesn't reach that audience anymore. I do think they should try it out with a repeat run and if it does well then they should give it a reboot.

Repeats will still be the basis for the entire channel. Not a bad thing, though. Doctor Who list considerable exposure after it lost its regular BBC Three repeats.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I found that 2 Pints was continually on BBC3 evening schedules to the point that a lot of the mentioned good bbc comedies (and some not-so-good, but not terrible and forgotten ones like Thieves like Us) were pushed into graveyard slots guaranteeing poor ratings.

[Pinball]

The BBC is a has-been. Who watches live TV anymore? Certainly, the BBC does little to encourage so-doing.

Can Two Pints decant to Netflix or Prime? Much better opportunities for quality there than on the shit BBC.

[Goldentony]

I'm impressed they've sold out a live tour for a podcast of it. Best performing boxset on iPlayer seems mad too

fuck off, neither of these an be real