Gordon the Gopher is back

Having run out nineties thing to bring back, it looks like TV commissioners are heading back into the eighties for ideas, as Gordon the Gopher makes a return to our screens.

He originally starred on Children's BBC alongside Phillip Schofield in the broom cupboard between 1985 and 1987, before heading over with Phil to Going Live! He also had his own TV series, Gordon The Gopher, but it only ran for a single season in 1991. That was then the last the world saw of the squeaky gopher with a distinctive dress sense.

Until now. He's been dug out from obscurity for a pilot which could lead to a full web-only comedy series - you can watch the five minute episode below. He now has a speaking voice, provided by Life's Too Short's Warwick Davis - and it actually looks incredibly promising. He's recently returned from a spell in rehab and is resentful of the success of his former sidekick.

Schofield had actually previously mentioned that Gordon had gone to rehab; in an interview with Heat in 2006 he said “It’s all gone horribly wrong for him. It’s a shame. I’ve got a restraining order against him and we don’t speak. He’s quite bitter and he has been ever since I got my role in Doctor Dolittle in the West End and he didn’t get offered the part. It was the straw that broke the gopher’s back.” However, he did then reunite with the gopher on This Morning in 2010 for the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the broom cupboard.

It's been written and directed by Ryan McDermott who told The Sun that the idea came from his grandmother finding an old replica Gordon in the loft. “She said: ‘I wonder what happened to him?’ It got me thinking. Phillip and the puppeteer, Paul Smith, own Gordon and both really liked the idea, so they allowed us to do it. I think they like it because Gordon’s naughty and swears.”

If the series gets approved, the storyline will see Gordon face his nemesis. McDermott explained, “We’ve outlined six shows. In one, Phillip and Gordon have a showdown. All the resentments come out, with Gordon asking him why he ditched him.” 

Watch the five minute clip above and get voting for it to be made at the BBC's Taster site.