Alf Garnett back as lost BBC classic sitcoms recreated

Alf Garnett has lost his signature moustache but kept his round glasses and waistcoat for the BBC revival of Till Death Us Do Part.

The Fast Show’s Simon Day has stepped in to play the character, originally portrayed by the late Warren Mitchell.

The first images from the TV remakes of Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe and Son, and Hancock’s Half Hour have been released ahead of the BBC’s Lost Sitcoms series.

The BBC is re-shooting a number of classic post-war sitcoms of which no recordings survive, as they are missing from its archives. The special episodes are being recreated by a new cast using the original scripts in front of a studio audience.

Alf, who is notoriously anti-socialist, racist, and sexist, heads up the Garnett family. In the show, Lizzie Roper plays Else, Sydney Rae White is Rita, and Carl Au is Mike.

The episode set to be recreated is titled A Woman’s Place Is In The Home. In the 1967 episode, Alf arrives home to an empty house and a burnt supper as wife Else has gone out — and he then sets about “putting things right”.

The resurrected Steptoe and Son episode sees rag and bone man Albert, played by Jeff Rawle, wearing fingerless gloves and a red neckerchief — just in the original series, where he was played by Wilfrid Brambell. He is shown alongside his on-screen son, Harold Steptoe, played by Ed Coleman who replaces Harry H Corbett.

In Hancock’s Half Hour, Tony Hancock is played by Pirates of the Caribbean actor Kevin McNally.

The Lost Sitcoms series will air later in the year to mark 60 years since Hancock’s Half Hour first appeared on BBC TV.