Goodnight Sweetheart to make a return

I was delighted to learn that Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran - often known as 'Lo and Mo' - are reprising their classic comedy 'Goodnight Sweetheart', if only for one episode.

It is a masterpiece of the imagination, combined with a warm nostalgia, created to appeal to viewers of different generations.

The central character is Gary Sparrow, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney Trotter in 'Only Fools & Horses')

Sparrow finds himself able to travel back in time to the East End of London during the Blitz. Soon he finds himself with a wife in the 1990s, Yvonne, and a wartime bride, Phoebe, played by Dervla Kirwan, who was to go onto to greater things.

He also has a friend in the 90s, Ron, who is a printer, and who supplies him with forged ration books and wartime currency.

Sparrow charms his friends in the 40s by entertaining them with 'his compositions', all of course Beatles classics, and other oddities familiar to anyone who grew up in post-war Britain.

He fathers children in both eras, and befriends Noel Coward. He meets King George VI, Clement Atlee, even Jack the Ripper gets into one story line. In a bank in 40's London he meets inept staff members who we recognise straight away as the characters from 'Dad's Army'.

As I say, a masterpiece of the imagination.

Lo and Mo have been responsible for some of the most popular sitcoms on British TV, including the superb 'Shine on Harvey Moon', and 'Birds of a Feather', the latter being one of the most successful of all sitcoms, running to 110 episodes.

Interestingly, they also wrote 'Mosley', a four episode drama. This was a brave decision, which raised a lot of eyebrows at the time.

Mosley, once described by Micheal Foot as the 'the brightest star in British politics', and one of the earliest advocates of a unified Europe, was a fascist, and Lo and Mo are Jewish.

That they could produce a historically accurate account of the events that shaped Mosley's political direction was considered unacceptable by many. It was, however, enlightening, disturbing, and challenging.