Neil Morrissey would revive Men Behaving Badly “at the drop of a hat”
Actor reveals that he would love to bring back the cult 1990s flatshare comedy in which he starred alongside Martin Clunes
It was the archetypal 1990s comedy which did so much to define the era's culture of laddism.
But Neil Morrissey has revealed that he would love to catch up with Men Behaving Badly's hard-drinking flatmates Gary and Tony who would now be well into their fifties.
Morrissey today told Good Morning Britain that the possibility of a new series of the hit comedy which ran from 1992 to 1998 and was made by Sherlock producers Hartswood Films is still being discussed.
“I am always tempted. Oh gosh yeah, I would do it at the drop of a hat,” he told Susanna Reid and Kate Garraway.
When asked by Susanna and Kate whether his co-star Martin Clunes was holding up a new series being made, he said: “It could be, I don’t know he’s a very busy boy. It would come down to scripts and it would come down to people wanting it in the first place. Yeah well let’s see, I’d love to do it.”
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He continued: “It keeps getting mentioned, once every couple of years someone brings it up again. It would be Beryl Vertue as well, Hartswood films, would obviously need to be very involved and they’re very busy. So I don’t know it’s a question. If the market needs it I suppose people will want to try and do it. But we’ll see. I doubt they could afford Martin anymore!”
Written by Simon Nye, the series started slowly on ITV when it starred Harry Enfield and Martin Clunes as the flatmates Dermot and Gary.
However, it took off when it was snapped up by the BBC and moved to a post watershed slot on BBC1 with Enfield’s character Dermot replaced by Morrissey as Tony. It was voted the best sitcom in the BBC's history at BBC Television's 60th anniversary celebrations in 1996.
For the most part the plot focused on Gary and Tony’s attempts to avoid commitment and drink as much lager as possible, with Tony's obsession with Leslie Ash's neighbour Deborah a recurring plot strand.
Whether or not such behaviour would be judged inappropriate and sexist in the modern era is of course an altogether different question....
