Comedy Connections - Season 5

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at grumpy old man sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Featuring revelations from many of the cast.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at Carla Lane's 1980s hit sitcom Bread, based around the antics of the Boswell clan in Liverpool.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at David Croft and Jimmy Perry's 1970s British Army-based sitcom It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran's 1980s satirical sitcom The New Statesman, which starred Rik Mayall as unscrupulous Tory MP Alan B'stard. It reveals how the series was sold to ITV by writing a fake Who's Who entry for Alan, and how the team were so determined to make the show as accurate as possible that they enlisted the help of a Tory MP at the time, a certain Michael Portillo.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at 1980s sitcom Don't Wait Up, which starred Nigel Havers as a young doctor living with his father.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's cult classic, The Office. It tells how a BBC training scheme video project became a multi-award winning international phenomenon, how Gareth was originally written as a super-macho action man type, and how its makers are actually fond of their creation-from-hell, David Brent.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at 1980s romantic sitcom Just Good Friends, which starred Jan Francis and Paul Nicholas.

It reveals that writer John Sullivan had to fight to get the cast he wanted for the show - BBC bosses weren't convinced that Nicholas was the right man to play loveable rogue Vince, and Francis herself wasn't sure about taking on a comedy role as she wanted to be seen as a serious actress.

Series charting the history of the best of British comedy looks at Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones's comedy sketch show that dominated ratings throughout the 1980s. It reveals how Smith and Jones first met at university, how they were then thrown together as part of the Not the Nine O'Clock News team, and that the two had very different working styles, with Mel being relaxed and avuncular while Griff was the worrier, who slaved over tweaking and memorising his lines. It also shows how the two co-ordinated a team of writing talent that would go on to careers in front of the camera. Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville and Clive Anderson were all Smith and Jones stalwarts. Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, creators of Father Ted, also served their time with Griff and Mel.

Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones took a partnership formed on Not The Nine O'clock News and produced material that still influences television comedy today. They moved from BBC Two to BBC One and at the same time founded their own company, Talkback, which would become one of the most successful TV production companies in the country. Both would go on to pursue other career interests, Griff as a presenter, Mel as a film and theatre director, but it is their partnership as Smith and Jones, with the famous head-to-head formats and the brilliant on-screen dynamic between the two, that is at the heart of much of their success.