Goodnight Sweetheart returning for one-off special after 17 years

The time travel sitcom will be "catapulted into the 21st century" for its new episode

The latest TV series to be dusted off for a return to the small screen is BBC time travel sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart.

Nicholas Lyndhurst - who made his name playing Rodney Trotter in Ony Fools and Horses - will reprise the lead role for this one-off special that will see his character Gary Sparrow "catapulted into the 21st century" following his transportation back to the 1940s.

Scripted by the original series' writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the special will air as part of the BBC's landmark season that's to celebrate the legacy of the channel's comedy over the past 60 years.

Speaking about the show's return, they said: “Gary has been trying for the last 17 years to find a way back to the present. Now he’s found one, and he’s asked us to turn it into a TV show, featuring much-loved old Goodnight Sweetheart friends and one or two new ones.”

The series ran from 1993 to 1999, ending on VE Day where TV repairman Sparrow was trapped in the past for what he assumed to be forever.

Alongside Goodnight Sweetheart, the network will revisit the worlds of sitcoms including Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearances. The latter will be celebrated through Young Hyacinth, a prequel series showing the sitcom's protagonist Hyacinth Bucket in her formative years.