Fans of cult comedy series Early Doors are demanding a new series - after news that the original 12 episodes are to be screened on the BBC for the first time in 14 years in the new year.
The BBC has confirmed that the show, set in a Stockport pub, will be repeated on BBC4 from Saturday, January 7, and will also be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer. And the news has been greeted with a HUGE reaction from Early Doors fans.
The show, created by The Royle Family co-writers Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, first aired on the BBC back in 2003, and would go on to run for two series.
Read more : Early Doors returns - here's a refresher on all the characters
The hilarious dramas inside the fictional The Grapes pub won it a huge army of fans though. And when in 2018 Cash and Mealey announced plans for a live theatre show with original cast reuniting it sparked a fan frenzy for tickets.
After an acclaimed run at The Lowry theatre it would go on to play a UK arena tour such was demand. It would go on to win the M.E.N's CityLife Award for Best Theatre Production in 2019.
Now, with news that the original series will be back on TV, fans are crying out for a new third series. A petition, first launched to demand a new series from the BBC after the arena tour success, has been back out on social media with almost 2,000 signatures.
News of the re-run was met with cheers from MEN readers who hailed it "best sitcom ever" although many questioned why new episodes are not on the way. Many urged the BBC to consider commissioning a new series after the original episodes are aired in January.
Do you want to see a new series? Have your say in our comments.
Ray Onions, said: "I could never understand why more series of this show were not made one of the funniest comedy show ever." While Lynsey Clark said: "Repeated. WHY. gutted make some new episodes."
David Rhead added: "When are the BBC going to realise that they let this slip through their fingers. One of the most underrated sitcoms… ever." Scott Goodfellow said: "Brilliant but let’s have a new series please."
Show co-creator Phil Mealey, who plays Duffy, said in reponse to calls for a new series on social media that the BBC "would have to ask us first" but has told the MEN that he WOULD be up for a new series.
He said: "We always said we'd be up for doing another series. The fans reaction and response has always been so loyal and incredible. In the 2018-19 tour that we did it started at the 500 seater theatre in the Lowry and by the time it had finished we were playing Arenas around the country concluding with over 8,000 people at the MEN Arena.
"We played to over 100,000 on that tour and not one person from the BBC came to see it. I can only think that we don't fit into the idea of what the BBC want as far as comedy's concerned."
But fans now hope that a big reaction to the repeats on TV may make BBC bosses see the appetite for a new series to be commissioned.
Writing on Twitter, one fan said: "Mate if I was comedy commissioner at the Beeb, you’d be THE first person I’d be calling. We want to know things like how are the patrons of the Grapes coping with smoking outside or are they still using Ken urinals as an ashtray and how’s Nanna’s asthma (asthma pump noise)?"
David Wainwright added: "Since series 2 we've had the smoking ban, alarming rise in business rates, the credit crunch, cost of living crises but some back street pubs are hanging on....Also the opportunity to give old Tommy a send off. More than enough material for 6 new episodes."
Anthony Smith said: "After the success of the stage show I can't believe the bbc haven't been in touch."
Early Doors will be aired on BBC4 from Saturday, January 7 at 10.55pm, with episodes available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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