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5 September 2010updated 27 Sep 2015 4:05am

B’stard is back

A documentary homage to the New Statesman.

By Jonathan Derbyshire

If you’re at a loose end this evening, you could do worse than watch the last programme in ITV’s Comedy Classics series, which takes a look at Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s 1980s sitcom The New Statesman.

We were delighted when the protagonist of The New Statesman (the sitcom) granted the New Statesman (the magazine) an interview recently. Alan B’stard, who is no longer an MP, shared with us his thoughts on the Labour leadership election:

[C]onsider the candidates: three men too spineless to oppose Gordon Brown when he was driving the party bus over the cliff, one man who – amazingly – actually thought Brown knew what he was doing, and Diane Abbott, known mainly for appearing on late-night TV with those other left-wing firebrands Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil.

Comedy Classics is on ITV 1 at 11.15pm.

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