Gold teams up with comedy legend Ronnie Corbett for The Two Ronnies Spectacle

The Two Ronnies Spectacle

The UK's favourite comedy channel, Gold, has commissioned The Two Ronnies Spectacle (3 x 60') from North One Television. Exclusive to Gold, the series will give comedy-lovers a charming insight into two of Britain's most interesting and well-loved double acts and will include rarely seen footage of the duo.

The series will delve deep into some of the exciting spectacles from The Two Ronnies, featuring an exclusive interview with Ronnie Corbett himself. Ronnie will also visit the Victoria & Albert Museum to unearth stored personal memorabilia of Ronnie Barker ? artefacts that have not been seen on TV before.

Each show will contain numerous classic sketches from their BBC primetime series, alongside rare material from the UK and abroad. As well as in-depth and revealing interviews with friends and colleagues, the show will also feature interviews with a carefully-selected cast of contemporary comedians such as Stephen Mangan, Al Murray and Clive Anderson, who are all genuine fans of The Two Ronnie?s and offer a nostalgic insight into what made them such special performers.

The series was commissioned by UKTV's director of commissioning Jane Rogerson. Julie Swanston is the commissioning editor for UKTV with Ricky Kelehar executive producing for North One Television.

Julie Swanston says

I'm excited to be celebrating Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker?s illustrious career together. The Two Ronnies Spectacle provides a fantastic insight into >one of Britain's best-loved comedy double acts and it?s great to have Ronnie Corbett working with us. It leads on perfectly from Bring Me Morecambe & >Wise on Gold last year and further adds to the exclusive comedy slate the channel is continuing to create.

Gold General Manager Steve North adds

The Two Ronnies Spectacle will fit in perfectly with the channel?s brilliant new commissions and it is testament to the channel?s quality new programmes. >After creating a definitive piece around Morecombe and Wise last year to be working with another of Britain's favourite double acts is incredibly exciting.

The Two Ronnies Spectacle follows Gold?s other successful commissions such as the return of Yes, Prime Minister, The Comic Strip: Five go to Rehab and Bring Me Morecambe and Wise which provided Gold with hit ratings winners. It will air on Gold later this year and forms part of Gold?s ?double digit millions? investment into new content for the channel which includes Gold?s first scripted sitcom Us and Them which was announced in February.

For more information, please contact:
Gem Pinkney
Publicist - Entertainment
or
Kerry Parker
Senior Corporate Communications Manager

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Notes to Editors

About Gold

Dedicated to celebrating the best of British comedy, Gold is the nation's favourite comedy channel. Much-loved comedy series such as Only Fools and Horses, Vicar of Dibley and Outnumbered sit alongside successful commissions including Fry and Laurie: Reunited, Royle Family Behind the Sofa, the highly anticipated return of Yes, Prime Minister and the successful commission The Comic Presents Five Go To Rehab, plus new acquisitions such as Gavin and Stacey, Getting On, Miranda and Mrs Brown?s Boys. The perfect tonic to make you laugh whatever the time of day, Gold shows universally funny content that everyone can enjoy so stick something funny on.

Where to find Gold: Sky channel 110, Virgin TV channel 126, and Top-Up TV channel 20.

About UKTV

UKTV is a major industry player and one of the most important and successful multichannel providers in the UK. Formed in 1997, it is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. (NYSE: SNI).

Attracting over 41 million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands ? Watch, Gold, Dave, alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food ? offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual. UKTV currently operates 25 broadcast streams when its eight multiplexes and five HD channels are taken into account, and 11 highly successful websites. The network also runs video on demand (VOD) services on Sky and BT Vision and is part of TalkTalk on YouView. In addition, UKTV recently launched its own ?On Demand? services with Dave On Demand and Yesterday On Demand.

UKTV's successful programming strategy combines high profile original commissions and key acquisitions with quality content from the BBC.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave, Really and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.