Joining the previously announced Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie and Coronation Street star Sair Khan will be The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker, TOWIE stars James ‘Arg’ Argent and Georgia Kousoulou, Blue singer Simon Webbe, Love Island’s Wes Nelson, Hollyoaks actress Rachel Adedeji, television presenter Diane Louise Jordan and Linford Christie’s fellow Olympic gold medallists , Tessa Sanderson and Greg Rutherford.

Davison also continued to appear in sitcoms like Eric Chappell's Fiddler's Three and Roy Clarke's Ain't Misbehavin'. To date, his final sitcom role saw him star alongside his daughter Georgia Tennant in Michael Aitkens's 2007 comedy Fear, Stress And Anger. Glenister later found fame as fixer Ash Morgan in long-running crime drama Hustle, while Corper reunited with Jim Davidson for Up The Elephant And Round The Castle, as well as appearing in Roy Clarke's Mann's Best Friends and Norman Lovett's cult curio I, Lovett. Her last credit to date was playing Rab C Nesbitt's snob of a sister in law, Phoebe. Sink or Swim (4 x 60’) attempts to erase the stigma of being a non-swimmer and follows the progress of our cast some complete non-swimmers, some who just need to polish up their skills as well as those with a fear of open water or those who have been taught to swim as children but now struggle to do so for health reasons – as they are pushed to their absolute limits.The show also boasts a theme tune from sitcom veteran Ronnie Hazlehurst, the man behind the iconic opening tunes to the likes of Last Of The Summer Wine, Yes Minister and Sorry!. For Sink Or Swim, he opted not to compose an original tune, but instead arranged an instrumental version of The Hollies' 1969 hit He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

The most enjoyable thing about Sink Or Swim is the chemistry between Davison and Glenister. In his autobiography, Davison writes about how they got on famously and would frequently be unable to get through scenes due to uncontrollable laughter, citing one particular sequence in the Christmas special. Much like Roy Clarke, Shearer's comic voice is gentle. His characters speak in badinage and whimsy. Take Steve's description of his love life: Rounding out the main cast is Sara Corper as Sonia. Like Glenister, this was Corper’s first major TV role, having previously appeared in an episode of The Jim Davidson Show, penned by Alex Shearer. For me, Corper is often the highlight of each episode and gains some of the biggest laughs. Perhaps this is because the many preoccupations of Sonia are still deeply relevant in today’s world of achingly right-on ‘vegan bores’. Again, this could have easily been a very one-note character, a ‘let’s all laugh at the mad veggie feminist’ trope, but Corper, like Glenister, finds the key to her likeability. She’s just an incredibly enthusiastic and well-meaning person, and the fervour with which she approaches her many causes (which she sometimes doesn’t fully understand) are therefore wholly sympathetic. The Last Leg presenter Alex Brooker was born with hand and arm deformities and a twisted right leg that had to be amputated when he was a baby. How does he feel in 17C water? “I’ve only got one set of toes I can’t feel.” Upbeat guy. Sink or Swim is a BBC TV sitcom created and written by Alex Shearer. It ran for three series between 4 December 1980 and 14 October 1982 and stars Peter Davison as Brian Webber and Robert Glenister as his brother Steve. Contents

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Sara Corper rounded out the cast as Brian's headstrong, vegan girlfriend Sonia, with whom Steve frequently clashed. Corper previously appeared in an episode of The Jim Davidson Show penned by Shearer, and he gets good mileage out of the comic contrast between her outspoken worldview and Brian's meek meanderings. Though other actors did appear, including Amanda Orton, Briony McRoberts, Gillian Taylforth, Ron Pember and Russell Wooton, the show rested on the shoulders of Davison and Glenister.

The ultimate goal for the group is a relay swim across the channel between England and France in the final episode. Sink or Swim celebrities The celebrities taking part in the show include Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie and Coronation Street star Sair Khan. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. Shearer later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom The Two of Us for LWT. Production of the sitcom overlapped the first two years of Davison also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on the recording schedules. [1] Cast [ edit ] Steven Handley, Commissioning Editor for Entertainment at Channel 4 says: “ Sink or Swim promises to be one of the most perilous Stand Up To Cancer Celebrity Challenges we have ever attempted. It will push the boundaries of what Celebrities will endure and overcome to raise money and awareness for charity and we are delighted to be working with TwoFour on this ambitious project. I’m thrilled to announce such an incredible and diverse cast for the series. They all have truly captivating stories behind why they find swimming terrifying and I cannot wait to see them embark upon this epic challenge.” Brian eventually moves with Sonia to Newcastle to read computer science at university but Steve goes too (with his canary) and gets a job as a maintenance worker at the university.A vintage BBC sitcom about two brothers. The older brother is ambitious, eager to grasp what the world has to offer. The younger brother is scruffy and hopeless, forever tempering the enthusiasm of his older sibling and raining on the parade of his aspirations. The setting is London at the dawn of the ’80s – Thatcher’s Britain – though in reality location filming in Bristol stands in for the capital. The producer/director is Gareth Gwenlan. Sara Corper continued her career in TV comedy, reuniting with Jim Davidson for Up the Elephant and Round ther Castle (OK, with Davidson, I’m using the term comedy in its loosest terms obviously) and taking regular roles in 1985 sitcom Mann’s Best Friends (also released by Network DVD) and Red Dwarf star Norman Lovett’s shortlived but fondly remembered sitcom I, Lovett, as well as a semi-regular role as snobbish sister-in-law Phoebe in Rab C. Nesbitt; her 1993 appearance in which is her last credit on IMDB. Holding The Fort and Sink Or Swim both started in 1980, and for the last two series of the latter he was filming concurrently with his opening series of Doctor Who. Completing the line up are television presenter Diane Louise Jordan and Linford Christie’s fellow Olympic gold medallists, Tessa Sanderson and Greg Rutherford. They’re joined by The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker, TOWIE stars James ‘Arg’ Argent and Georgia Kousoulou, Blue singer Simon Webbe, Love Island’s Wes Nelson and Hollyoaks actress Rachel Adedeji.

Like many BBC sitcoms from this golden era, Sink or Swim is blessed with a theme tune and score by the illustrious composer, Ronnie Hazlehurst– the man behind the themes for Are You Being Served? Last of the Summer Wine, Just Good Friends, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Yes Minister, Sorry! and, yes, even the first series of Only Fools and Horses. Like his memorable theme tune for Carla Lane’s Butterflies (an arrangement of the Dolly Parton 1974 hit, Love is Like a Butterfly) Sink or Swim was not an original composition. Instead, for this show about the fractious, chalk and cheese relationship of siblings, Hazlehurst was asked to arrange an instrumental version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother –a 1969 hit for The Hollies. Brian lives in a flat above a petrol station in London (in the last series he moved to Newcastle to attend university). He's trying hard to make his way in the world, thus far with limited success. His girlfriend, Sonia, is a very serious minded young woman who is passionate only about things like vegetarianism and ecology. When Brian's younger brother, Steve, arrives in London looking for somewhere to stay, his lazy, cynical, noisy "Northern lout" attitude disrupts Brian's already messy life. Meanwhile, the experts helping them out include Olympic silver medallist Keri-anne Payne and adventurer Ross Edgley (best known for being the first person in history to swim around Great Britain), with support from Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds. Sink or Swim air dateNo, I’m not talking about Only Fools and Horses. That series arrived on the BBC in September 1981. Instead, I’m talking about a sitcom that beat John Sullivan’s much-loved classic by almost a year, running for three series between 1980 and 1982. I’m talking about Sink or Swim, written by Alex Shearer of The Two of Us fame (which ironically starred Only Fools‘ Nicholas Lyndhust) and starring a pre- Doctor Who Peter Davison and, in his television debut, Robert Glenister, as the brothers Brian and Steve and Sara Corper as Brian’s girlfriend, Sonia. All three series of Sink or Swim were released as one DVD set by Network in 2016. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. Shearer later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom The Two of Us for LWT. Production of the sitcom overlapped the first two years of Davison also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on the recording schedules. [1] On paper, the character could be deeply irritating and it’s fair to say that there are some “it was acceptable in the ’80s” levels of unreconstructed, non-PC, alpha-male attitudes that Glenister is saddled with uttering which are, sadly, not always appropriately challenged; notably in some alarmingly homophobic dialogue that equates gay people to somehow being subnormal in Steve’s eyes and some casually racist language. But Glenister plays against the stereotypical ignorant Northerner trope and mines instead a vulnerability to his performance that stems from just how childish the character of Steve actually is. Mel Leach, Executive Producer for Twofour added, “Swimming the Channel is a monumental feat for even the very best swimmers, let alone those who can’t even swim a length. Our brave celebrities will have to overcome their fears and embark on a huge mental and physical transformation to complete this epic challenge.”