ITV3 is to air The Comedy Years, a new four-part series looking at important comedy milestones, stripped across the Easter weekend nightly from 19th to 22nd April.

The Comedy Years, narrated by Hugh Bonneville, looks back at how comedy has shaped and defined a changing Britain over the past four decades, mixing classic comedy archive with social history and pop culture nostalgia. The series features interviews with stars of comedy past and present, all revealing the comedy moments that inspired them, as well as talking about the roles they themselves played in some classic TV series.

Below are details of each episode of The Comedy Years

Ep 1: “1979” 

The Comedy Years 1979 features interviews with stars of comedy past and present - revealing the comedy moments that inspired them - including the likes of James Bolam, Omid Djalili, Clive Anderson, Cannon & Ball, Bernie Clifton, Mick Miller, Shappi Khorsandi, and Dom Joly.

This episode looks back at comedy from 1979. It was a pivotal year for Britain, there was a new prime minister in Margaret Thatcher and mass strikes leading to the so-called ‘Winter Of Discontent.’ 

On television, we saw a return to political satire, with the BBC series Not The Nine O’Clock News introducing new comedians Mel Smith, Griff Rhys-Jones and Rowan Atkinson.

This episode will also look at the northern club scene, which was dominating telly at the time with the likes of The Cannon & Ball Show and the stand-up series The Comedians. It’s also the year that saw a new breed of alternative comedians making a name for themselves, with the opening of The Comedy Store.

1979 was a pivotal year for women in comedy - with the introduction of impressionist Pamela Stephenson on Nine O’Clock News and the success of sitcoms that for the first time reflected a female perspective, such as Butterflies and The Liver Birds.

Ep 2: “1984” 

The Comedy Years 1984 features interviews with stars of comedy past and present - revealing the comedy moments that inspired them - including the likes of Omid Djalili, Janet Street Porter, Brian Conley, Barry Cryer, Clive Anderson, Shappi Khorsandi and Cannon & Ball. 

This episode looks back at comedy from 1984. It was the year of the miners’ strike; a conflict that saw Britain embroiled in a bitter industrial dispute as Margaret Thatcher took on Union leader Arthur Scargill.

Meanwhile our political figures were on the receiving end of the rudest, most irreverent comedy series we’d ever seen on mainstream television with the creation of Spitting Image.

It was the year when alternative comedy burst into the mainstream, with cult hits like The Young Ones and Alas Smith And Ones now battling it out in the TV schedules with more mainstream shows like Russ Abbott’s Madhouse.

It was also the year the nation mourned the passing of two comedy greats - Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper.

Ep 3: “1998” 

The Comedy Years 1998 features interviews with stars of comedy past and present - revealing the comedy moments that inspired them - including the likes of Shobna Gulati, Kulvinder Ghir, Sherrie Hewson, John Culshaw,Debra Stephenson, Ingrid Lacey, Robert Duncan and Susannah Doyle.

This episode looks back at 1998. It was the era of New Labour and Blair’s Britain - and also a year that saw some ground-breaking new comedy series.

The Royle Family brought a new, social realist style of filming to the world of sitcom. Meanwhile, the BBC launched the first all-Asian sketch show, Goodness Gracious Me.

Victoria Wood made her first foray into the world of situation comedy with the award-winning series Dinnerladies.

1998 also saw the final series of two much-loved shows of the Nineties - satirical comedy Drop The Dead Donkey and cult sitcom Father Ted.

Ep 4: “2003” 

The Comedy Years 2003 features interviews with stars of comedy past and present - revealing the comedy moments that inspired them - including the likes of Joel Dommett, Shappi Khorsandi, Dom Joly, Joel Beckett, Ewen MacIntosh, Ninia Benjamin, Clive Anderson and John Thomson.

This episode looks back at comedy from 2003. The final series of The Office took a swipe at the world of reality television and instant celebrity - and the love triangle between Tim, Lee and Dawn reached a memorable conclusion.

Ordinary members of the public found themselves the unwitting comedy stooges of TV hidden camera shows like Trigger Happy TV and Three Non Blondes.

It was also the year Bruce Forsyth made a memorable appearance as guest host of Have I Got News For You and comedy legend Bob Monkhouse performed his last ever stand-up gig to an audience of fellow comics in a small London pub. 

Meanwhile, the original run of award-winning comedy drama series Cold Feet bowed out with a tragic storyline.