Yahoo News Johnny Vegas and Sian Gibson want to remake Hart to Hart
If you caught Gold's gloriously silly original comedy Murder on the Blackpool Express last Christmas, you'll be happy to hear that a sequel is coming in to dock this festive season.
Death on the Tyne sees Johnny Vegas and Sian Gibson reprise their roles as Terry and Gemma, who take a tour group on a cruise after their disastrous coach outing.
The follow-up was greenlit after 2017's Murder on the Blackpool Express became Gold's most watched programme ever, with 1.8 million viewers in its first week – with Vegas and Gibson crediting the special's success to its top-tier cast, which included Sheila Reid (who returns in Death on the Tyne), Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Una Stubbs and actual Nigel Havers.
"I didn’t speak to Nigel Havers for three weeks," Car Share's Gibson confessed to Digital Spy. "I eventually asked him how his dinner was. That’s as far as I could get!"
She added: "I think the cast drew people to [the first one]. They are comedy legends. I was blown away when I saw the cast list. But I also just think it appealed to all ages."
"I suspect there were people who might have come to it wanting it not to work," Vegas suggested. "And it did! They might've come to it with morbid curiosity, thinking, 'No, they’ve overdone this.' And actually, it worked!"
This year's Death on the Tyne has attracted another cast of notable names, including Sue Johnston, Don Gilet and James Fleet. "This year, we had James Fleet to fawn over," Gibson laughed. "He was this year’s Nigel Havers!"
The spoof murder mystery sees a killer on the prowl aboard the Empress of the Tyne... and just because someone's a familiar face, don't assume they'll make it to the end! Even our two leads were nervous about being bumped off.
"I flicked straight to the end, to see if we were in the last scene," Gibson admitted. "I said, 'Don’t send me the script unless I survive!'," joked Vegas.
Presuming Terry and Gemma do make it out of this latest horror show alive, Vegas and Gibson both say they'd "love to" return for a third instalment in the series. They've even made plans to reunite on a different project, possibly once writer Jason Cook's trilogy is complete.
"We’ll wait until this has definitely run its course, whenever that is," said Gibson. "So we will work on something else eventually, but it’s out of our control [as to when]."
"We do like the idea that we’re a couple, at a certain point in our lives, who’ve both been let go from their chosen careers, who have decided to set up a detective agency," Vegas said, while his co-star added: "That’s what we want, isn’t it? A Hart to Hart remake!"
Death On The Tyne airs Saturday, December 15 at 9pm on Christmas Gold.
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