Continuing its push into original comedy, PayTV broadcaster UKTV has commissioned The Comic Strip to make a new film for its Gold channel. 

 

The film is called The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go To Rehab and is a sequel to the Comic Strip”s very earliest Famous Five parodies Five Go Mad In Dorset and Five Go Mad On Mescalin which appeared on Channel 4 in the 1980s.

 

The project is being produced by Great Western Features, the Southwest England-based company founded by The Comic Strip”s Peter Richardson and his partner Nick Smith. Richardson will co-write with Peter Richens and the aim is to reunite Dawn French, Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders and Robbie Coltrane in the lead roles.

 

UKTV, which also revived Yes Minister, will support the film with a two-hour retrospective of The Comic Strip.

 

The new film will look at how the lives of the characters haven”t panned out. Trapped in dead-end jobs and unhappy marriages, they decide to try and recapture some of the lost freedom of their youths. The film was ordered by UKTV commissioner Sarah Fraser who said the deal “underlined the scale of ambition at Gold. The Comic Strip is a heritage brand which we can update.”