Not The Nine O'Clock News - History

History

Not the Nine O'Clock News was produced by John Lloyd. Lloyd pitched the idea to the heads of BBC Comedy and Light Entertainment and was given a six-show series on condition that he collaborate with Sean Hardie, who had worked in current affairs at the BBC.

The original cast was Rowan Atkinson, Christopher Godwin, John Gorman, Chris Langham, Willoughby Goddard, and Jonathan Hyde, and the show was planned for 2 April 1979. As the show was originally scheduled to air after Fawlty Towers, John Cleese was to have introduced the first episode in a sketch referring to a technicians' strike then in progress, explaining (in character as Basil Fawlty) that there was no show that week so a "tatty revue" would be broadcast instead. However the 1979 general election intervened, and the show was pulled as too political. The sketch with Cleese was broadcast later that year, when the final episode of Fawlty Towers went out during the broadcast run of the first series of Not the Nine O'Clock News, though the significance of the sketch was lost. This link is included on the Region 2 Fawlty Towers DVD boxset.

Lloyd and Hardie decided to recast the show, retaining Langham and Atkinson. They wanted to bring in a woman. Victoria Wood turned the show down. Lloyd met Pamela Stephenson at a party and she agreed to join. Atkinson, Langham, and Stephenson were joined by Mel Smith. The first series was criticised for being "a poor mix of stand up, and a mild portion of sketches". This left the BBC with sketches which depended upon a second series; seven episodes were commissioned. Langham was replaced by Griff Rhys Jones, who had already appeared in minor roles. The second series won the Silver Rose at the Montreux Festival and a BAFTA award for Best Light Entertainment Programme in 1982.

The series has rarely been repeated; eight re-cut and condensed (to make it "faster and funnier than ever") "episodes" are shown instead. This is primarily because the original episodes in their entirety lampooned events that were in the news at the time.

The main writers included David Renwick, Colin Bostock-Smith, Andy Hamilton, Peter Brewis, Richard Curtis, and Clive Anderson. However, the producers accepted scripts for sketches from a wide range of writers and ensured the show remained topical by recording sketches only days before broadcast. Howard Goodall (subsequently composer of the Red Dwarf, Blackadder, and The Vicar of Dibley theme music) was musical director. Bill Wilson directed the first three series, Geoff Posner the fourth.

Not the Nine O'Clock News became a stage show in Oxford and London in 1982, but the main performers decided to end the project while it was a success: Stephenson began a Hollywood film career, Atkinson recorded the first series of Blackadder in 1983, and Smith and Jones became a double act in Alas Smith and Jones. An American adaptation, Not Necessarily the News ran for seven years, from 1983–90 on the Home Box Office cable television channel.

In 2005, Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Chris Langham, and John Lloyd reunited to talk to Sue MacGregor about the show. Langham's departure was touched upon, with Lloyd seeming to take the blame, though Atkinson had campaigned for Langham to be kept in the cast. The Reunion was broadcast on Radio 4 on 31 July 2005.

A documentary featuring the cast reminiscing about the making of the programme was shown on BBC 2 on 28 December 2009, before one of the 1995 compilation shows was aired (despite a "complete episode" being billed in television listings).