There have been so many different clip and chart shows surfing the nostalgia wave for old sitcoms I thought all the ideas had been used up, but in this new three-part series comedians and friends Joe Wilkinson and David Earl have come up with a brilliant new format. Each week they surprise each other by revisiting locations and recreating classic moments from the other's personal favourites. The next two programmes look at The Office and Fawlty Towers, but it starts with Earl surprising Wilkinson with a show about his first sitcom love, Porridge.

 

Things don't get off to a great start when Earl takes Wilkinson to the actual studio in Acton where Ronnie Barker, Richard Beckinsale and co used to rehearse, only to find it's been replaced with flats. And yet while actual pieces of comedy history are gone there is a way of bringing them back – Earl blows the budget by having a replica of the Porridge cell rebuilt brick by brick, pineapple chunk by pineapple chunk (shades of Nathan Fielder here).

 

And not only that but they've gone and got one of the few surviving cast members – Christopher Biggins, who recalls how good the script was when he first read it. Needless to say everything seemed perfect with Porridge, from the performances to the casting to the writing by Likely Lads creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

 

As the programme goes on there are more treats in store for Wilkinson. He gets to visit Ronnie Barker's old house and while Earl can't deliver the actual Ronnie Barker they do share a taxi with a convincing lookalike (who could probably moonlight as a Peter Sellers stunt double as well). 

 

There's a lot of talk of ghosts here and the spirit of sitcoms past does genuinely seem to overwhelm Wilkinson at times. Just touching a doorhandle at Ealing Studios that Barker must have touched creates a tingle. And meeting Dick Clement in the flesh and Ian La Frenais on Facetime in the Uxbridge pub where the writers first met is almost too much for him.

 

There is more, but we won't give it all away. Needless to say Wilkinson gets very emotional at the end, underlining how much shows that we watched as children with our family can leave an indelible mark on us. Will the next generation look back on TikTok clips they watched on their phone with the same affection? Somehow I doubt it.