‘I thought I heard sleigh bells… has he been?’

It’s the season of goodwill and peace on earth, so we thought we’d give you an update on the Talking Bottom book.

We don’t want to deliver anything half-arsed so we’re currently researching, and interviewing cast and crew, to inform each chapter we're writing. Paul’s been down the BBC Archives to thumb through some seriously fascinating original scripts, photographs and correspondence to give us great insight into the process Rik and Ade went through to bring Bottom to our screens.

You have hopefully been listening to our Bottom 30th Anniversary celebration podcast series. Talking Bottom released one-off episodes exploring various themes in everyone's favourite ever sitcom, such as Physical Comedy, Class and Poverty, Base Needs, and Costumes. We have also shared exclusive interviews with Bottom stars including Mark Lambert (The Gas Man!), Helen Lederer (Lady Natasha), Lee Cornes (Dick Head), Lisa Maxwell (Lily Linneker) and Roger Sloman (Mr Harrison). We have also had incredible chats with legendary BBC Executive Producers Jon Plowman and Paul Jackson, and series one and two's Director Ed Bye. (If you haven’t heard the podcasts yet, despair not, search ‘Talking Bottom’ wherever you get your podcasts or go to https://talkingbottom.podbean.com/ ... do subscribe so you'll know when we share more!)

We must reiterate a big festive thank you to each and every one of you for pledging your support to the project and making our commission to write it a reality. Once it is complete, the book will be going through a vigorous editing process via Unbound. We will keep you updated as soon as we have more news on a potential publishing date.

For now, this is no time for fun and games - it’s nearly Christmas Day! Lordy Lordy, look at the time - we’ll let you get on with scrubbing your sprouts and discussing if you’re a leg or a breast man. (Would you like some magazines to read while we go through our entire repertoire of Christmassy Bottom quotes?)

Happy Christmas 1973!

Love from,

ABBA (i.e. Angela, Mat and Paul) xxx