The BBC Comedy Playhouse strand was originally devised for writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson after they were let go by Tony Hancock.
The BBC wanted to retain their services even if Hancock did not entirely appreciate them.
The first series were ten one off comedies. Steptoe and Son was the standout and let to a hit series.
In the second series, Impasse about two driver stuck in a country lane became well remembered.
The strand later featured other writers as Galton and Simpson became too busy with Steptoe and Son.
Johnny Speight wrote Till Death Us Do Part, a comedy about a dysfunctional family and tackled taboo subjects such as racism. It too led to a hit series, it created the iconic character of Alf Garnett. The show was later transplanted to America as All in the Family.
The longest running show was Last of the Summer Wine. The one of pilot was broadcast in 1973. The series finished in 2010.
The Comedy Playhouse strand continued until 1975. However it was revived after the broadcast of this documentary.
Narrated by Victoria Wood, it featured several performers who worked on the pilots. Bernard Cribbins, June Whitfield and Keith Barron.
It probably needed a hour to do it justice and also needed more performers from that era. I sometimes felt that Paul Merton and Hugh Dennis as commentators might not had been fans of some of the spin off shows such as Happy Ever After.
