It seemed like in the 2000 season there was a big effort to bring back past characters with Greg, Lance and Celia returning early in the season and the
reunion for Sally's non-wedding. Was this a planned effort to bring more nostalgia into the show, or was it just coincidence that many actors were willing to return that year? Also, the mentions of past events were and are very detailed. Do you have a big collection of continuity cards or do you and others in the production offices have great memories?
Asked by JeremaiIn 2000 the ratings of the show were showing signs of weakness and so it was decided to bring back some old faces to try to get lapsed viewers to resample the show. It worked too. It's great to do, but it's very costly. I won't be doing it with baby Pippa's christening. We've had a very expensive year this year with production, so I'm just having Sally have a quiet christening with one old face turning up so that the fans don't feel cheated that there's no one from the past. These are the sorts of practicalities people like Coral and I have to consider as we tell our stories. (b) The previous history of the show is pretty much in the writing department brains. I was of course there at the beginning seventeen years ago- having written the opening telemovie and been Script Producer for the first eighteen months of the show. And I've been reading and commenting on all the scripts for the last seven years in my role as Network Script Executive. But our great source of continuity - and I know Coral relied on him as much as I did - was Dan Bennett, who was a great viewer of the show before he came in to work on it. There's not much he doesn't know about what happened. Sometimes we get it wrong, but it's usually in fairly small ways. And we hope the viewers forgive us when we do. We're only human after all :-)
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